The Pin Cushion

A long time comin'

2012-01-30T11:22:00.000-08:00

Three things happened this weekend that seemed like they may never happen.

One: we're on the other side of all our winter bleh. Everyone has been sick and yuck and now we're done. Almost. Baby boy has a tinch left but it will soon be gone. OH yes, it will be gone.

I finally finished my Pink Elephant Quilt! I knew I wanted to do hand quilting at some point in my life. So I made a little baby quilt and went to it.... 3 years ago. It kept getting pushed aside and I finally brought it back out recently.

Yep, all hand quilted and I really love it. The stitches feel so good. It has a great texture.

I actually started this before she was born. She's three now. Oy.

The back is half pink chenille and half pale pink cotton dots. I appliqued and embroidered a little polka dot elephant on the back. Yes it's my favorite animal.

Lastly, I finished my sister-in-law's quilt! Woo hoo! This didn't take quite as long as the elephant quilt but nearly a year. So embarrassing.

So the sorority symbols are pink carnations and crescent moons. Well how could I let a chance go by without getting that in fabric?

The carnations were easy enough. I actually found two and used one for sashing and a lighter print for the border.

The moons however were a pain. A very expensive pain. I did find ONE repro print that wasn't baby-ish and it was about $10/yd. I really wanted it for the backing but not that bad. I chose to buy a yard and use it as the binding instead.

I think that's where I got off-track with this quilt. I so badly wanted the moons for the back and kept wringing my hands about the cost or if I could find any other moon fabric out there. I couldn't.

I quilted each t-shirt square with matching thread and then used gray in my bobbin. All the squares were the loopty loos except the mish-mash square at the bottom right where I combined 4 pieces to make one big square. I did each quadrant in a different FMQ. Here is my rockin' pebble stitch. What a great texture that has! But I don't think it would be fun to do an entire large bed quilt that way.

It is super duper long. Get it,"A loooong time comin'"? My sister-in-law is tall but not 7 foot. Hopefully it is still well-loved and received anyway. My husband called it the 'rob' quilt because of the Greek letters.

Good-bye, Rob Quilt.
One quilting resolution done!

A Pinterest Finish! {Farm Play Mat Tutorial}

2012-01-20T19:33:00.000-08:00

My good friend from 1000 years ago (high school days) saw this on Pinterest and I was immediately inspired. I was thrilled to take on this little project. I love quilting but change can be very refreshing!

I used a bunch of pieces of batting from previous quilts. Butted up together, large zigzag, and viola! Frankenbatting!

I thought the best way to go about this was a Quilt as You Go style. In a nutshell, sewing directly onto the batting.

I used all scraps - go me! (And BTW, I'm happy to report I have not spent one penny on fabric for 29 days.) Trying to make it as interesting with various textures, colors, etc but still farmy. My three-year-old was so tickled to help with this. She loved picking out things and asking me to use them. That creative spontaneity is so wonderful, especially when shared with a little one.

Suede, burlap, work shirts, ribbons, corduroy, upholstery, and lots of fun machine stitches made it so exciting to see what could be coming next from those little eager hands. I tried to imagine landscape images (ponds, fields, tractor paths, grasslands, tree lines) but still wanted it to be open for the kiddos to use their imaginations.

I also created some hills by stuffing teeny tiny fabric scraps under the fabric before sewing it down.

Some edges were left raw for extra texture, grassy effects, you know...

By the way, if your work room doesn't look like this, you're not doing it right!

So once I had two large-ish pieces "quilted" I joined them together. Just one seam down the middle.

My blue minky backing ready for basting. Taped to the floor upside down.

Farm mat laid on top. Remember this was Quilt as You Go so the batting is already there.

A few pins around the perimeter since I only intend on minimal quilting here. It's pretty small.

If this were my farm I'd plant zucchini, snap peas, romaine, and have 35 chickens.

I sewed thru the layers (backing, front/batting) where I sewed that seam to join the two sides. So yep, only one seam down the middle. From my stash I had that (previously regarded as hideous) grass binding. It looked perfect here, but like Vietnam on the previous quilt I tried it on.

The kids liked it and were looking for their plots, mermaids in the pond, different crops, and a stray peacock. If "the boys" have half as much fun, I'll call it success!

In my tree

2012-01-16T18:02:00.000-08:00

My boy is well.... a boy! He's growing and becoming ornery. He loves to make motor noises while driving (and eating) cars.

I was totally in love with him crawling and playing under the table. I often give thanks for this healthy sweet baby. He is cuddle-icious and is doted on by everyone who sees him.

Just a boy and his cars.

Working on my sarah jane family tree quilt. We recently drove really, really far to visit my family and I thought it fitting to work on this quilt. I'm kicking myself for not picking up any of the other adorable fabric in her line but I think I'll have enough pinks to work with.

The 6-inch border here is from a flannel sheet. It is so warm and fuzzy.

I'm really excited to finish this one up and have it around. My husband didn't get to know his grandparents from "the old country" so this is one tiny way to be reminded of them and know their names. (We've had to ask Nonna more than once who is who...)

For the embroidery, I used plum thread (3 ply) on the female names and dark brown for the males. It turned out perfectly! Hopefully it will be finished up before long.

Looking ahead...

2012-01-04T11:11:00.000-08:00

My quilting resolutions for 2012...

I'd like to make a Plus Quilt
I NEED to finish my sister-in-law's tshirt quilt

I'd like to make a Gray and Green quilt. I really like these fabrics together and have most of them on hand. It feels so natural, organic, and calming.

I have a ton of Nicey Jane blocks that I'd like to finish up the quilt for. It was supposed to be "my" quilt but now that my girls are starting to get a sense of style and it seems similar to mine... maybe they'll cuddle under with me. Which is a quilter-mommy's dream come true!

I want to be more aware of the money I spend on fabric and buy only what I need. I've been organizing lately and find that I've ordered fabrics that I've already had. How embarrassing. What am I, a quilt shop? NO! So I really need to 1 - organize (obviously) and stay organized. 2- spend less and use what I have on hand.

And finally... not a resolution but a dream. I would just love the chance to go to Squam. I would love to take my oldest daughter and reconnect. To her. To me. To life.

It seems so peaceful and calm, the opposite of life here sometimes. I think it's healthy to take a break and cleanse the mind and heart.

But if $1000 doesn't drop from the sky and I am not able to go, I would like to make the goal of having my own Squam here. Day trips, peaceful outings, calm nature-filled days and walks in the abundant woods around us. To keep that picture of God's beautiful creation in my mind and aim for it in my daily life. To enjoy what He has entrusted to me and resolve to grow closer to Him and it.

Life easily gets hectic and I put pressures on myself that I don't need to. Burdens that Christ never intended me to carry. I do hope to live more simply and love more deeply.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined! ~Thoreau

2011 has been a very good year!

2011-12-30T20:51:00.000-08:00

I'm very thankful to everyone who supported me this year. January 1st 2012 will be four years that I've made quilts for others and what a wonderful time it's been. I feel so blessed and so thankful to have made new friends and the quilts that keep them and their children warm.

A very happy and blessed new year to you all. Thank you for your kindness, love, and support in 2011!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T12:15:00.000-08:00

This Christmas I have a bouncing baby boy! He's a little drooly as you can see. Eight months old now and really, really sweet. How did we ever live without him??!! I can't help but notice Grandma and Grandpa sent more gifts to him than to anyone else in the family. Ahem.

I loved making this quilt for a dear friend. She had a baby girl and like all good mommies do... they get a quilt to match the baby! :) It's super warm, backed with chenille and flannel as batting.

This really has been the Year of the Shabby Chic Quilt. I have yet to tally up the grand total of 2011 quilts but I'm sure the Shabby Chic will rule.

My newest babies... we have been entertaining 5 teeny caterpillars for about a month now. They have all successfully grown into chrysalides and now THREE are butterflies! We actually watched #3 hatch this afternoon. It was completely amazing. Sadly part of the chrysalis was on his face and he was unable to break free. The little bugger fell to the ground and hasn't been the same since. We're praying he comes around soon.

It was fascinating to watch the whole process of slimy slithery caterpillars turn into these beautiful butterflies. Even watching the struggle as one neared its "finish line" was quite an allegory for our messy life. I used to think when I became a mother, I would inherit all these remarkable "instincts" that we hear about.

Nothing comes easy. Instincts can work against me. And boy is there ever struggle, even though I thought I would kind of have it figured out by now.

But we also have joy. A reason for hope. At the end of the day we have a God who loves us so much that he reversed the "butterfly process". He left his beautiful life in heaven to come down among the dirt here. He did this to set us free and give us our freedom from the sin that entangles us and covers our eyes.

I pray you have a blessed Christmas. Full of light and hope and lots of love.

Disappearing Nine Patch a la Hipstamatic

2011-12-09T10:34:00.001-08:00

First things first... I MUST finish this quilt soon. It's a tshirt quilt for my sister-in-law. She was so dear to give me a serger (still in the box!). In return I would make her a quilt. Yeah, sorry Sis. The top is done but the back is not even close. Looking at the tiny baby at the top lets me know that it has been quite a while since he is definitely not that teeny any more.

Look out, 2012... I'm coming atchya with a sorority t-shirt quilt and tons of carnations.

Check out that focusing in the picture! Can you say NEW CAMERA?! Thanks, hubs. Happy Birthday to me! It's been a journey figuring it out but the macro setting is my first priority.

Anyway, the quilt was a disappearing nine-patch for a friend of my mom. She is Chinese and expecting a boy. So mama requested that Chinese Kids Michael Miller fabric with other blues and greens.

I've never done a disappearing nine-patch before but it was fun! It took a bit to get used to. My advice would be to use as much color variety in each 9-patch block as you can before you cut it. I made the mistake of making a bunch of green blocks and then blue blocks thinking it wouldn't make a difference. It did. The colors were clumped together and I had to make new blocks with more variety.

Just before I received my new birthday camera I decided to pay for my first app on the iPhone. (I totally did not expect a new camera so this was my present to myself.) I LOVE the hipstamatic app. I love, love, love these pictures. It makes my children more beautiful and my life seem so much happier. HAHAHAHA!

See below... you wouldn't know the girls were totally annoyed with me at the annual Christmas Tree Festival. They are happy and retro and oh so hip.

In loving memory

2011-12-08T19:24:00.001-08:00

In loving memory...

The holiday season is so sad for so many people. Including me. I lost my cousin two years ago, just before Thanksgiving. I know others hurt this time of year.

I didn't personally know this family but I hurt with them. This quilt was made with many prayers and tears too.

Made from seven of his dress shirts and simply quilted to give his parents warmth and comfort.
I'm very honored to have been a part of this Christmas gift. May God bless you this time of year. Peace to you.

And lots of hugs.

'Tis the (crazy) Season

2011-11-28T17:13:00.001-08:00

We have had a lovely busy crazy month of birthdays, milestones, and lots of sewing!

My middle girl turned 3! She is usually my nutty buddy (aka wild child) but sadly was a titch sick on her birthday party day. No voice at all meant only whispers from the birthday girl. It kinda made us a little sad to see this outspoken little person turn into a silent fragile mouse!

We got a small trampoline for her which has been enjoyed by everyone here. The baby just loved the balloons. So innocent and full of joy at the tiniest of things...

For her birthday we decided to cut her hair. For the first time ever. Look at that tiny floating head... Gosh I love her! We celebrated with a nice lunch afterwards and she was pretty excited about it all.

A quilt for baby Cash using the crib sheet from his nursery (Little Builders, Eddie Bauer), flannels, corduroys, suede, and cotton. A very texture-riffic quilt!

Also using a variety of textures is a special memory quilt for another baby on-the-way. This included everything from a leather jacket, hat, wedding dress, and Vera Bradley purse scraps. I really enjoyed putting this together. The sewing machine did well, even with the leather! Yay, Janome!

A rag quilt for Baby Ciara. Pretty cool mix of prints and colors, this is totally my style.

Many more Christmas quilts on the way. Oh how it warms my heart that people are giving quilts as gifts. (No pun intended!) I love that people see them as heirlooms, treasures, and something special to be excited by.

Bonnets and Bikes

2011-10-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

We have had a lovely autumn so far. Took a nice day trip to Amish Country and rode a wagon through a ranch that had every animal from Buffalo (and a Beefalo too!) to Long Horn to Zerbras. The girls absolutely loved it! And even though it cost an arm and a leg it was worth it to see how they loved feeding, petting, and being up close to these exotic (to us) animals.

This llama was hilarious. And a bit freaky. It ran beside the wagon several yards hoping to be fed just a bit more... and more... and more....

I currently have 8 - or is it 9 - quilts going on now. I do not work well with so many to keep track of! Thankfully my clients are crazy nice and the quilts are fun to assemble. The bikes from Michael Miller are so great. It really makes me excited to get to baby boy's quilt in oh, a few years!

Which reminds me... I finally finished Isabella's quilt. Here is a picture of the front. She chose a blue and pink floral for the backing and I finished it off with scrappy pink binding.
I was very happy with how it turned out. She was happy with how it turned out. FIVE YEARS in the making! I finished the binding one night about 10pm and sneaked into her room and laid it on her as she slept. She woke up in the morning all excited.

And then turned it over to the blue backing because she likes that better. Five years of piecing the front, people.

Quilt, Cook, Run

2011-09-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

When I first started this blog, I originally wanted to call it Quilt, Cook, Run. Those are my "big 3" favorite things, but I wasn't sure how that would work over the long haul. You know, having kids doesn't allow for a lot of free time so I thought it best to concentrate on just one. So the "quilt" part won out and that's a good thing.

I kinda cook to survive at this point and run to take care of the cooking part... :)

So now I can write posts that touch on each one as necessary. Here goes!

The Quilt:
I started with this color-filled inspiration. And here is where it ended up! I think it's pretty cool and I hope my client does too. Her baby is due in about 36 seconds so I'm hoping the quilt will get there before baby. Go, quilt, go!

The Run:
I just completed some race/competition thingys. Last year I was 12 weeks pregnant and ran a half marathon. He was the size of a lemon.

This year he sat in a lawn chair and watched me go by. What a difference a year makes!

My husband and I also did the Warrior Dash together. Yep! It was hard. I could run all day but I have no upper body strength. Which would have been nice climbing over all those walls. But it was a great challenge after running races the last 10+ years. And it was nice to play in the mud with hubs.

And the Cook part...
My husband's work has a little recipe contest going on. I've decided to enter my version of Swedish salmon that I watched my hostmom make oodles of times as an exchange student in Sweden. It's very simple: equal parts salt, pepper, sugar, and dill on back and front (1 tsp of each, divided amongst the fillets).
Here I served it with cheesy orzo and peas - something you would never see in Sweden! We are gluttons for cheese on everything and I'm ok with that.

Sometime I'll have to share about the day I made mac 'n cheese for my Swedish friends. With chocolate chip cookies as dessert! I wanted to do an American lunch for them but perhaps it was as little "much". Oh dear....

So stay tuned to see if it's a winner! I really hope so because it is one of my favorite things to make, so healthy and yummy.

Happy Autumn! Looking forward to the apple farm and all the lovely festivals this time of year.

this moment

2011-09-16T05:24:00.000-07:00

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Quilt Updates

2011-09-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

Little Grace's 100 Wishes Quilt is complete. She is a sweet little 4-year old who will soon be snuggling with her very own twin-size quilt. Each square is 8".

Of course we had to make a custom label for the little one. I must say the hand embroidery has greatly improved. I really enjoy it now and love new challenges for different stitches and even cursive fonts.

I got new labels! Love them. I actually ordered two sets. The navy blue (above) I ordered from a lovely Etsy seller, The Dancing Needle. I wasn't sure about fonts and colors and such so I also ordered from Namemaker (pink ones below). They both come to about $1/label after shipping. Of course nothing beats Tracy's personal service and no minimum order. For example, I just ordered 5 of the navy ones just to see what they were like. Namemaker is a huge company and I think I have about 35 of the pinks to use.

Which is fine because I like them. But if I didn't that would be bad.

I just like to give ya the low-down because it took me about a gazillion years to settle on these heavy decisions. I'm very indecisive.

Melodie's quilt is also coming along nicely. The quilt top is done. I love the applique here. I just ordered the flannel backing and so excited to put it all together.

Sorry for the yucko pictures. Dropping major hints on a new camera for my upcoming birthday. Husband are you reading this?

Next on the to-do list: three pillows and a boy quilt of bicycles! Sooo excited as I have wanted this fabric for Nino's quilt for quite some time. And now I have an excuse to buy it. Hooray!

Enjoy these lovely, lovely end-of-summer days. Say yes to going outside even if it totally messes up your schedule. You won't regret it. Just sayin'.

xoxo

Love Thy Neighbor

2011-08-25T12:02:00.000-07:00

I think I'm a bit of an introvert, as most sewists out there tend to be. Just give me my machine and fabric and I'm happy for hours. But there's something about getting together with friends, old and new, that just really fuels me.

I think that's why I love shows like Friends - people just enjoying one another and mutual commraderie. The laughs, the tears... God created us to be with others, not isolated in sewing bunkers.

So as summer is winding down I feel like there's a few things we just haven't done enough of. One of them is entertaining. We used to have people over at least monthly but excuses, excuses... we just haven't been as frequent lately.

Until now! I organized a Progressive Dinner Party with three other neighbors/couples and it was GREAT! It's been almost a week now and I'm still riding this wave of excitement. It was like living in sitcom land where the food was great, the laughs were abundant, and everyone just really enjoyed one another.

We had drinks and appetizers. Yes! I fretted a while about what to serve, how to serve it, etc. I asked for suggestions on Facebook the night before and got some great responses. I finally decided to go with Baked Brie.

It was super easy. And looked super awesome. Well I made two of them and the one at the bottom here on the blue cake stand did not look as awesome but it tasted great! Again, very easy recipe. Check out the link.

So the night continued with much success and I must say I loved it. We ended up next door around the fire eating peach cobbler. A fantastic night all around. If I may urge you to organize something as well, you will not regret it. And do so while it's still nice out so you can entertain outdoors and not have to clean the house. wink, wink.

I currently have two commissioned quilts going. One is consisting of the above colors. Holy Vibrance, Batman! I'm so excited to be working with such electric colors. The client must have a very exuberant personality because not many people go this bold for a baby. I can not wait to see the finished product. The fabric should arrive any day now. I can barely wait to get started!

Back to people... here is my husband's aunt from Italy. We have had such a lovely time visiting with her and her husband. Oh how I wish I could speak with them. My Italian is limited to yes, thank you, and shoes. Not really conversational, per se. But we would take walks around my father-in-laws gardens, peach trees, and sit at the table fussing over the baby together. At least I think that's what we were gesturing about....

I hope she knows how much we love her even though I could only tell her she had on shoes.

Back to sewing... my other current commissioned quilt is for a little girl who has been adopted from China. Her family here wanted to make her a "good luck quilt". So the client sent 100 squares from various family members consisting of different novelty-type fabrics. Lots of ladybugs, butterflies, etc. This is only a portion of it as it will be much bigger than my little design wall can hold at one time. I try to make the larger quilts in sections and then stitch them together. I LOVE when the quilts have a story. Getting to know my clients through fabric and the history and how it came to be is really the best part of this little gig.

And now I must start sewing these squares together. Nap time is coming to an end and I need to have a little more to show for it! ;)

Frog Tape Winner

2011-08-22T16:31:00.000-07:00

YAY KATE!

The winner of the Frog Tape Giveaway is Kate! Thanks to all who entered.

In other news, I dress my baby in the same shade of aqua as my walls. (Windswept) I think I find this more humorous than said baby.

Seriously cute. I love this boy.

My husband has some family in from Milan, Italy. In typical Italian fashion I had less than 24 hours notice of their arrival to our house. Nice. I will admit it caused a teensy bit of marital stress, but thankfully I was able to pull together a good-looking table for them. Prosciutto, golden honeydew (way better than the regular, BTW), parmesano reggiano, salami, 53 other kinds of cheese, Italian Meatloaf, and some red wine. Bellisimo!

The summer is winding down and honestly I am quite thrilled. Don't get me wrong, summer is always nice but for real... I hate watering flowers every single day. (They barely made it to July 4th this year.) And it's been so hot that being outside has been uncomfortable. Especially with a baby strapped to me.

So now that it's not 300 degrees outside we've been doing everything on our trusty picnic blanket. This particular day we did scratch art. I always thought you had to put black paint on top of the crayon-ed paper but this lovely blog post said nope! Put black crayon on top of the colorful crayon. Okey dokey!
We did and it worked! And since we were outside, the girls used twigs on the ground as the scratching devices. Very cool. I love sharing art projects with them that I remember doing as a kid. I remember doing my first scratch art thinking it was so magical.

Our little homeschool will start soon and I am loving the build-up to it. The planning, the book buying and lending, the new materials here and there.... Such anticipation for all of us as we explore these unchartered waters. Sewing has been a great resource already as we've used it for measuring, counting, adding, and of course fine motor skills.

Isabella is making a pillow for a penpal and although we're about a month past the penpal's birthday she has done most of it by herself. I am super excited to have her finish it up and hope that she will be encouraged to make more things for others. That will be a blog post for sure!

Enjoy these last summer days. Hopefully your flowers have fared better than mine.

A Frog Tape Giveaway!

2011-08-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

YAY! I've written about my new love for Frog Tape and guess what... I can now share my love with you! The fabulous people at Frog Tape have generously donated two rolls of their super sticky tape, gift bag, and an awesome-possum T-Shirt!

So whether you are about to baste some quilts or paint the town green, you can try Frog Tape for free and love it like me.

Dude, it's like $8 a roll. This is major.

The frog rocks my basting world.

In other news, Mipsa made a ZIG ZAG quilt!

Isn't is gorgeous? Here she is - my house, her quilt, my baby, her, my dog. Try to keep up.

To win the Frog Tape giveaway, leave a comment telling me your favorite summer memory from this year. Mine is watching the girls swimming in the pool for the first time. Half freaking out and half really excited for them. No picture of it - that's where the freaking out comes into play.

Anyway, leave a comment and I'll pull a random winner this weekend-ish.

Edited to add: If'n blogger isn't allowing you to comment on here, head on over to The Facebook and comment there. Thanks!

Super Hip Rag Quilt

2011-07-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

And now, a word from my non-sponsor...

Ever since I started making quilts, I have used the blue painter's tape for basting. You know, taping the back onto the floor then poking a gazillion pins in the top to keep all the layers together.

Well I have recently been quite um...unhappy... with the results. It *may* have had something to do with the fact that I paid like 4 cents for a roll of the blue stuff. But NOW! Now GREEN is the new blue. I found some Frog Tape (quite spendy) but it worked like a charm.

Especially if you're using it on chenille, flannel, or right infront of the AC vent where the air just keeps blowing the tape to smitherines. I heart Frog Tape. Now if I could just get paid for that little bit...

My latest commissioned quilt was this super hip 'n funky rag quilt. It's for a baby girl but you can't tell. And that's cool. Because if baby girl gets a baby brother someday... no need to pack up the quilt. And that is what every quilt-maker wants - lots of usage.

So I started the usage train with my own baby perched atop.

I just love this color combination. So unexpected (for me!). Very bright and happy.
I feel like these are the kinds of quilts that make sewing and quilting cool. Because, you know, some people think it's not.

Some might think I take too many pictures of my baby on quilts.

Including the baby.

But isn't that what babies are for?

Taking close-ups of adorable wrist-rolls and tiny toes?

Yeah, I thought so.

Science + Quilts

2011-07-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

An update on the homemade soft scrub:
Don't fill your container all the way to the top. A fun science experiment with baking soda - yes. Cleaning it off of the hardwood floors in the closet where it was kept - not as fun. Give it a little breathing room when you fill your container with the magic potion.

The Yo Gabba Gabba quilt is complete and on it's way to the birthday girl! I know I've said it a bajillion times but this quilt was so. much. fun. Incase you couldn't tell by my profile picture, I love rainbow quilts!

And a stripey bias-cut binding. YAY! The only thing I wish I had more time for on this quilt was hand quilting in the rainbow colors around each block. That would have made me keep it instead of sending it to the owner so I guess that's a good thing.

(Random off-topic rant - what is up with blogger? All of my pictures look blurry and dark and I'm getting emails about people not being able to comment. Sorry for the fuzzy images and disabled comments. Hopefully it is fixed soon.)

Moving on, a lovely shabby chic rag quilt for a looooovely customer. I wish we could have a big Etsy reunion with clients. It's amazing the friendships that form just over chatting about quilts and babies. I have had the privilege of meeting some of the nicest people under the sun. To think that God opened up this avenue for me with a needle and thread is really unbelieveable.

The soon-to-be mama is decorating her daughter's nursery with a shabby chic style and incorporating antique tea cups. How adorable would that be?! And why didn't I think of that! Anyway I found the most perfect embroidery pattern by Catherine over at Bumpkin Bears & Friends on Etsy. It's a cute little bunny peeking out of a stack of teacups. So a very simple label turned into a 7" square on the back of the quilt. I sewed and snipped it in a rag-style to match the front.

I really hope your summer is lots of fun. One of my favorite things about summer time as a mama is letting the girls stay up late, catching lightning bugs, and drinking lemonade. They truly love the simple things which I am very grateful for. These days are so wonderful, I am so blessed.

A Banner Day

2011-07-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

Another Independence Day Parade! I love this neighborhood and the sense of community on this day. See that Lady Liberty down there in the right hand corner? Where else are you going to get that?! And yep, The Banner made it's second appearance. I got a little nervous the day before when I couldn't remember where I stored it from last year... and the rods to hold it. But it all worked out, thank goodness!

Another memory rag quilt has been made. This one for a bridal shower gift. The gift-giver asked the bride and groom questions about each other (first meeting, when they fell in love, future as parents,etc) and also included pictures with their answers. FUN! The fabric was Gypsy Bandana which was a great color combo to work with. Love them blues and greens!

Today we replenished the faux-soft-scrubbing cleaner. Remember my resolution for 2011 was to make my own laundry detergent? A friend and I did just that and more back in February. I have to make more of it but this was even easier and my bathroom is way gross.

Frosting you say? Great, as soon as you put the camera down I'll be chowing down on this stuff.

It's a hazy, hot, and humid day today so we are in for most of the time. The kiddies really liked helping with this one. I love this finished product and use it all the time. I basically dump a box of baking soda in a 4-cup bowl, add some detergent and stir until it's a frosting-like consistency.

Once you get the desired gooy consistency and have successfully washed out your toddler's mouth, spoon it into a safe place (where it won't be mistaken as frosting in the future). I use a mason jar and make sure the lid is screwed on crazy tight.

Now go clean your bathroom!

Summer Sewing

2011-06-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

Whew, I have to get one blog post in this month by the skin of my teeth!

Yikes, between a totally adorable two-month-old and beautifully sunny Ohio days, blogging has been happening a lot in my mind. You know, talking to myself. I do have a lot of quilting deadlines right now as well which is not good for the "lazy days of summer" bit. But I am so thankful for family and friends who are helping with the kiddos and sewing. God continues to bless me and watch me go crazy at the same time.

Speaking of going crazy, a lovely young mama contacted me about making a quilt to remind her little girl of Yo Gabba Gabba. This sweet woman picked out the perfect fabrics to evoke such a strong feeling of the show. The bright colors, the bold stripes, and some spectacular Spoonflower fabrics really do the trick. (Do you see those awesome glasses?!)

Not many clients dump a ton of gorgeous fabric on my doorstep and tell me "be creative, I trust you". This has been so much fun to play with. I love bright rainbow colors and free-spirited wonky log cabin blocks. Really having fun finishing this quilt up and will post the finished product soon. (ish)

If you sew and you love summer I highly recommend making a picnic blanket. I take it everywhere with us and use it almost every single day. OR if you need an easy but thoughtful useable gift - totally do the picnic blanket. Our neighbors just got married and I have theirs in the works. They want to have a ton of kids right away (my kind of people!) so hopefully they will be cool with a picnic blanket as a wedding gift.

My super ornery two-year-old eating her 19th piece of watermelon that day. If you wear blue polka dots around me, you can get away with pretty much anything. Just sayin'.

You have no idea how much restraint I am exercising with just one baby picture. Here he is with his grandfather, or Nonno, that he was named after. He has the funniest old man look on his face which I find completely adorable (of course).

And finally a picture of a pillow I did recently. I love these. Hoping to start up on some boy themed pillows. Now that I have my incredible little man I am noticing how few things are out there for him. Finally I can over-indulge in blue and green. And dogs. And vespas. Oooh have I found the most adorable vespa fabric!

Boys are great! Especially when it comes to sewing. God really knew what he was doing when he gave me my sweet baby boy. I admit there was a bit of sadness at not having another girl. But really, what's not to love about frogs and snails and puppy dog tails? Looking forward to lots of new projects for the baby man.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

2011-05-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

1. I had a baby!

2. He's super cute!

3. Here's my quilt for Blogger's Quilt Festival. Can you find the baby in the middle? :)

I talked about making this quilt for a client-turned-really good friend from NYC in my last post. Her due date was the day after mine but she delivered a week or so before me. Which was actually great because it gave me time to finish up her quilt in time for Mother's Day. I think every mom should have a quilt for Mother's Day. Which means I should probably start now to get one out to MY mama for next year. Ahem...

Make sure you stop by Amy's blog and check out the oodles of fantastic quilts on parade!

Quilts, no baby

2011-04-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

Well, being officially 5 days overdue is good for one thing and one thing only... getting quilts done. I much prefer to be snuggling with a tiny little person right now but sewing is a lovely distraction.

I was recently contacted by my NYC twin. Not really a twin but we are living parallel lives. She has two girls and was due with her 3rd baby the day after I was due with my 3rd. Except she actually HAD her baby and I'm still waiting. Did I mention I'm still waiting to give birth?

Anyway she wanted a special quilt to accomodate a family of 5 for picnics and such. So we came up with this. It came together really fast and with lots of love. Because when you feel a special connection to the person you're making it for, you just want it to be perfect. Just waiting on the label and then attach the binding and then it's off to baby Brody.

My other current project is a rag quilt for little girl who is about to turn 1. This is one creative family!

Lots of pictures and messages of love. It only makes me feel bad that I haven't done anything nearly as meaningful for my own children. Someday, my loves! Thankfully I have very imaginative and creative clients that give me lots of inspiration.

Well I guess I'm signing off until baby comes. It will come. That's what they tell me, no one has been pregnant forever. Until then have a blessed Easter season. He has risen! He has risen indeed! Hallelujah!

A winner!

2011-04-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

Random.org has chosen #4, The Knapps, for the CSN Giveaway. Double congratulations to you as you commented on a baby on the way!! Hooray! I'll be sending you an email with the info.

Speaking of babies, I HOPEFULLY will be also joining the baby club (again) soon. Due date is approaching and we are all a-twitter here. Well, mostly just me and hubs.

I am so tickled I got to make some more Love pillow covers. Funny it was exactly a year ago that I did the tutorial with Amy Butler's Love fabric.

My oldest turned 5 (FIVE?!) this week. So no one told me teenage drama would start at 5. I'm going to keep blaming the no sleep situation and hope it will soon pass. However we did have a lovely time at the "birthday house" as she calls it. Being 39 weeks pregnant we kept it very low key. MIL brought pasta, I made some pulled pork BBQ and dad grilled out some chicken sausage brat things. I'm all for simple but nice.

AND I met my goal of completing this quilt before baby came. A sweety of a client commisssioned me to make this for her daughter's birthday on the same day as my daughters! Well I'll be... It did have silks in the front which did not survive the washing and drying process. Probably would have done ok if it were a regular quilt but as a rag quilt it did not work out. So I had to undo the entire - YES, I said entire - quilt to pull out the 17 silk squares. Substituted them with regular cotton fabric and we're back on track. The velvet is still on the back which I pray will wash well and last for lifetimes.

Congrats, The Knapps! Happy Birthday to my little girl and the velvet birthday girl! Blessings all around!

GIVEAWAY TIME! And a lot of quilt pictures.

2011-03-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

Eek! It's almost been two whole months?! I promise I've steadily been working away. I've even got the pictures to prove it. Baby #3 will be here any minute now (eek again!) and we've had to re-arrange the entire bedroom situation at home. The girls are now in one room together. Oh help me!

For the first time I've really felt the desire to decorate my home in a beautiful way. Before things were just kinda hodge-podge. But now I have 2 UNNECESSARY pillows on my bed for a grand total of 4. I know, it's time I became an adult. Another thing I'm really loving is lighting. Being that hubs is in the electrical design world, I have to bring my A-game for any lighting suggestions. I must say that after months of looking around, CSN has some really cool, modern fixtures. I'm really wanting some pendant lighting for the bedroom. Our house is surrounded by tall gangly trees and never gets hot in the summer. Why all the ceiling fans?! Let's make this place gorgeous!

First coat of new blue walls. See! No room is safe here.

But since it feels like I've been under a rock I want to liven things up and do another fantastic CSN Giveaway! Just leave a comment about how I get my girls to actually sleep at night instead of dance around until 10pm. :) OR tell me your current home dec project. It's spring, I know you're working on something. I'll pick a random winner next week who will receive a $30 gift cert to CSN for lighting purchases or whatever your little heart desires. And now some of the quilts I've been working on the past month: An adorable twin patchwork commission. My girls were both sad to see me box it up. They were totally hoping it was for them. Sorry, girls. You'll get quilts of your own someday... And let the rag quilt mania begin! Being super pregnant, I was thrilled to pieces that so many people wanted rag quilts in my last trimester. Basting a quilt at 9 mths pregnant is just not a pretty thing. Oh! So I've started making pillows now and they are super fun. Yuck, blurry picture. Can I ask for a new camera for Mother's Day without seeming too demanding? Honey? Someone? Pretty please?

Here we have rag quilt #736. Everyone adds their own special flare. Lavender, an old nightgown from grandma, pictures on fabric paper, etc. I love quilts! They all end up just right for their special people to keep warm and save memories in a very useful way. Maybe that's why scrapbooking never spoke to me. I can' t do anything with a book other than open it. Or fix a wobbly table.

And the present creation - this client wanted to incorporate silks and velvet into her quilt. Mama mia! It is a texture party everywhere here!

I'm so thankful to have had a wonderful start to the year. God continues to bless me richly with my growing family and fun little business. You just never know where He is going to take you.

Don't forget to leave a comment for the CSN Giveaway! Happy Decorating and a blessed Lenten season.

A Clean Mess

2011-02-02T12:33:00.001-08:00

Happy Winter! As I write this we are getting slammed with snow, rain, sleet, ice and maybe some tarantulas. Seems like all kinds of things are falling from the sky and we never know what is coming next. Personally I love it. Snow me in for days and I will be a happy camper. As long as my awesome fam is all around me, bring it on!

I thought I'd share a fun activity we love here. I cannot take one ounce of credit for this. I belong to a fabulous group of neighborhood mamas (MOMS Club) who are so generous to share their creative ideas of what works in their homes. I believe this originally came from Betsy. THANK YOU!

It takes us about a half hour from start to finish. It's messy, but clean at the same time! The messier they get, the cleaner the table becomes. How cool is that! Plus the kids are getting all lathered up themselves so I'm thinking it's double duty on them as well.

I know it sounds strange, I was very hesitant to try it. However it really does work and it's not like a fountain of running water pouring over the edges as I first imagined it would be.

To start, dribble a little water on the table.

Then drip a few soap droplets from your dish washing soap container and let the little people get to work!

Have about a 1/2 cup of water and a bottle of dish soap handy. As it lathers, both the water and soap will need replenishing.

My girls ask to do this almost nightly but I try to sqeeze it in weekly - or wait until the table is so grimey it's barely recognizeable.

When everyone has had enough, I send them to the bathroom to rinse their hands off while I use a wet washcloth to wipe down the table. This is also a good time to get the wet-mop out as there will be dribbles on the floor.

You can see my dish soap and little cup o' water on the table here. My girls are ages 4 and 2. Both are able to fully participate, feel useful, get messy, and have fun. I love doing this with them! Give it a try sometime. And then look up your nearest MOMS Club chapter so you can spread the word and your own motherly wisdom!

PS - Please feel free to leave more ideas in the comments. I think all mamas are looking for fun things to do with the kiddies, especially in the winter.

Crash Course in Applique {Tutorial}

2011-01-16T16:24:00.000-08:00

Does the word applique scare the pants off you with it's Frenchy-French accent thing and the thought of ... well, whatever might be involved? It's ok, my pants were scared off too at one point. Well fear not, friends! Here is a crash course in applique. In 10 easy steps you too can add all the bells and whistles you once thought were out of reach. Shall we?

Supplies:

*computer with Word program (or something like that)

*printer

*Heat n Bond Lite

*iron

*pencil

*fabric

*sewing machine stuff (applique foot if possible)

First I suggest you find a friend with a short name. :)

1- Type the name/word in the desired font on the computer. This is French Script at 375 point font. To increase the font from the sizes on the pull-down menu, just highlight it and right click on "font". Then type your number in the little box.

2- Print the mirror image (or sometimes called transparency setting) so that the letters print out backward. Not so important if it's a non-directinal design, but with letters it's big deal. So print 'em backwards!

3- Trace the backwards print out onto the paper side of the Heat n Bond. There's a bumpy side and paper side.

4- Cut out around letters giving yourself some space. See above where there's a good inch or so around the letter.

5- Place these letter squares on appropriatly-sized fabric scraps. Check your placement to make sure it's all where you want it to be.

6- Iron the squares (rough side down) onto the BACK of the fabric. You're essentially making fabric stickers here. The rough side of the Heat n Bond creates a sticky back for the fabric.

7- Cut out around the pencil lines to reveal some sweet-looking letters!

8- Places the letters on the background fabric, play with the placement and make sure it's all good.

9- When you are happy with where they should go, peel the paper off the back. I usually do this at the ironing board with the iron hot and ready. Make sure your placement is good again and then when you're totally sure - iron it down. No steaming is necessary and it really takes about 5-10 seconds.

10- At this point you can be done but if you like to make it fray-proof and longer-lasting, sew around the letters using an applique foot and blanket stitch. I've included a picture of an applique foot. It looks pretty normal except has a clear/wide hole where you can see exactly what's going on while the machine is sewing.

Finish up your little project after those 10 easy applique steps. Nice work! You can show those Frenchy-accent words who's boss now.

Rag Quilt {Tutorial}

2011-01-09T18:34:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! Is it ok to still say that?

How are your resolutions going? My resolution (I try to only make one and only one) for 2010 was to do better at meal planning. I wasn't doing it AT ALL, so I figured I could only improve. I'm happy to say that I really did get in the groove. I started out hard core and gained weight + spent more money. Then started to fizzle out but in the end I found a method that worked for me - a loose plan - and I think I found the winning combination.

Anyhoo my resolution for 2011 is.... to make my own laundry detergent! Apparently you can do it easily and spend approximately $10 a year. Good news since we are about to become a family of 5 and have laundry come out the ying yang. Haven't made any yet but you'll be sure to know when and how and all the good stuff.

So - I've had some rag quilt questions over on flickr and on my Janome Yahoo group this week. Since I'm in the middle of making eleventy million of them, I figured it was time to get some words and pictures together from my little sewing nook.

Supplies:

*Fabric (Can be various scraps or charm packs. Don't put a charm pack through the wash. It will disappear.)

*Flannel ( I usually use white but you can get creative with the color. Also pre-shrink flannel - wash and dry.)

*Walking foot is nice for the sewing machine (not necessary, but makes sewing through alllll those layers easier)

*Spring-loaded scissors (Kinda actually necessary so you don't get hand paralysis and quit before the quilt is done)

This is perfect for beginners, even children, making their first quilt. It's great for instant gratification and quick results. I love rag quilts!

I was all set to make my my girls a fun little Dr. Seuss rag quilt for the play room/reading corner but my oldest daugther became horribly terrified of The Cat in the Hat this summer.

Hmm... Can't say that I blame her. But the rest of the fabric is bright, colorful, fun, and totally great.

The first thing you do is cut your fabric into squares. Totally doesn't matter what size. I usually do mine at 6" because I have a 6" ruler and it goes faster. Keep in mind that you will lose 1-2" after they are all sewn together so you might want to keep them on the bigger side.

Next is decision time. You must decide before you start sewing if you want your backing to be patchwork like the front (only without the raggy edges) OR a seperate back that you attach when it's all done. Should you go the patchwork route, you should stack 1 each of:

1- fabric (face down)
2- flannel
3- fabric (face up)

Next: sew a big X corner to corner on each little fabric/flannel/fabric sandwich to keep everything even steven - picture below.

Patchwork back identical to the front

See my X

So after you cut the fabric and flannel both the same size, it is time to sew! If making and attaching the back seperately, take a flannel square and place a fabric square on top (face up). You can sew an X across each block to keep everything centered or you can just wing it.

For most quilters it seems a little bit nutso at first because you are sewing WRONG sides together instead of right sides together as we usually do.

Another bit of important info - make your seam allowances about 1/2". It must be bigger than 1/4" so you have room to snip without cutting into the seam. Some people go much wider than 1/2" and that's fine, the raggy edges will be more floppy. I like to keep mine in check so I keep it on the small side.

Two blocks sewn together (flannel squares underneath) and the seam is exposed.

Do a row like this until all horizontal rows are done and then join the rows together one at a time until the front (and back too perhaps) is complete.
Here's a picture of what a cross-section would look like. I try to open up the seams as my walking foot plows through.

Now that your front is complete, make sure to have a fantastic pair of spring-loaded scissors . These are not the particular ones that I have but I'm sure they're fine. Put on a nice long movie, get comfy on the couch, and start snipping all those exposed seams at about 1/2" to 1/4" from each other. Sometimes it takes a few days to do, but that's ok. It's a great project to take in the car or waiting for your kiddos at dance. (Good conversation starter too, BTW.)

If making the identical patchwork backing, be sure to sew around the perimeter of the quilt and also snip around the outer edges.

If making a seperate backing, cut it the same size as your quilt and sew right sides together (backing and quilt), leaving a little opening (4-5") for turning. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end.

Now turn right sides out, use a ruler or something kind of sharp to poke out the corners, but don't puncture it in all your square-quilt madness.

Edgestitch all the way around (1/8" or so) making sure to close the opening you just used for turning.

Once they are all snipped throw that puppy in the laundry, wash and dry. Do be aware that there is some crazy lint going on the first few washes so maybe do it with a load of towels or something. But oooooh, you will be in love when it comes out of the dryer. Crazy soft and super duper nice to cuddle with.

Up next... the back of the Dr. Seuss quilt. I have a little crash course in applique for ya'll.

I'd love to hear if this was helpful at all. And of course, I love to see pictures of what you make! Always feel free to ask questions, that's why I'm here. Thanks for stopping by!

Winner + Boy Quilts

2011-01-01T15:41:00.000-08:00

The winner of the CSN Giveaway is #1 Sarah! Someday I will learn how to import the Random.org widget for proof. If any of you are keen on that, I'd love to know how to do it. Anyhoo, thanks so much to all who entered and what fun gifts you gave your loved ones!

I've had some boy quilts enter my life lately. A good friend roped her brother into taking pictures of my loot from the shop. He did a great job of making my quilts look extremely gorgeous so naturally I got to repay the favor with a quilt for the baby boy on the way.

It was my first time to work with Echino fabric and it was great! A tad on the expensive side but totally worth it. I love the linen feel of it and how extremely creative the prints are. The repeats are a fantastic blend of stripes, dots, and a novelty item (helicoptes, busses, and cameras in this case).

Next up was a rag quilt (surprise, surprise!) made with Robots from David Walker. I ran across an unbelievable sale a while back and went hog wild ordering the entire line. Rag quilts are such a dream to make at this point in my life. Pretty fast, easy, and always a fun result when it comes out of the dryer all fluffed up.

I'm thinking of doing a rag quilt tutorial since I'm going a little nutso over here with them. I assume there are a gazillion out there already, but what's one more, right?

A very happy new year to you all. May it be safe, happy, healthy and quilty! Thank you so much for stopping by my little blog. Cheers!

Pillow Covers {Tutorial} + Giveaway!

2010-12-26T17:02:00.000-08:00

Whew! What a fantastic Christmas! For us, it was simple and sweet and just downright great. I usually dread this time of year for a variety of reasons but this was so nice that I might not cry come next December.

So what about you? Excited for New Years? Did you get any sweet home bar furniture to spruce up the place for your next party? I'm totally digging this pink one:

Any good sewing things? Tell ya what, just incase there was something you wanted but didn't get, I'm giving away a gift certificate to CSN stores so that you can get whatever it is your little heart desires! Just comment at the end of this post and tell me what was the best "thing" you GAVE this year. (Totally doesn't have to be a "thing" - you know what I mean!)

Contest open to US addresses only. Sorry Charlie, CSN rules. I'll announce the winner next year.... January 1st!

And now onto the (crazy easy and mega fast) pillow cover tutorial!

Supplies:

Batting

Fabric - can be same, contrasting front and back, whateves

All the normal sewing machine stuff

Pillow form - measure that ahead of time so you know what size to make the cover.

Skill level:

Totally beginner. Way fun and good for instant gratification.

A friend recently asked me to make three linen pillow covers as a Christmas gift to her sister. Oh linen! I love how it looks but it is a tad bit high-maintenance with its wrinkles and wiggly edges. I chose a 100% linen of medium weight.

Since I like a nice soft cushy pillow, I back my pillow covers with batting. I first cut my batting to the exact size of the pillow form (18" x 18" in this case). This is probably the most important step if you are using linen because the batting (I use Warm and White) holds its shape better than the crazy wiggly linen. Perfectly square batting will ensure you will end up with an evenly-shaped pillow cover.

Exhibit A: Batting.

Next - cut the front of the pillow cover the exact same size. (18" x 18")

For the back (envelope closure), cut two panels 18" x 12". (Or if using a different size pillow form, make sure that the panels will overlap by at least 4")

(If you are in a real hurry, use the selvedge edges as the "hemmed" edges and sew around the raw edges when making your cover. So for example, cut the selvedge at 18" in length and put that in the middle - NOT on the outside - when we start stacking all the layers.)

Now we stack.

First - batting.

Next - front - right side up

Finally - panel one raw edges lined up on the left and panel two lined up on the right - right sides down.

Hemmed/Selvedge edges in the middle.

(psst- I have a more in-depth tutorial here with better pictures should you need a little more visual guidance.)

Stacked? Edges all lined up nice and neat? Let's sew, daddio!

You will probably want to pin just to make sure everybody stays in place. I also use a walking foot for this since there are a lot of layers and room for a lot of shifting about.

So you sew about 1/4" all the way around. For linen I did almost 1/2" since it tends to fray. It really doesn't matter - just rock it out. Make sure you catch all the layers all the time. You'll know if you didn't once you turn it right side out. :) --And don't worry, you can totally go back and fix it. No biggie.

Ok, so you have sewn all the way around. No need to leave an opening for turning since that's what the envelope closure will do.

Turn that puppy right side out and you can be done at this point. Totally less than an hour, right?!

Should you choose to dress it up a bit (and also help the pillow to stand up straigher), you can sew a little "faux piping" around the edge.

Just sew all the way around it again, this time on the right side. By using your walking foot and making it as narrow as possible (1/4" is fine), you can have instant piping! (Should you want to do the real deal with piping, check out my previous tutorial.)

Ok, so like an hour and 2 minutes? Easy peezy!

Don't forget to comment for the CSN Giveaway! Happy New Year if I don't check back in this week. You never know...

Pregnant Quilting

2010-12-22T04:10:00.000-08:00

Well, it's the week of Christmas! I have been very blessed to have a lot of commission orders since summer. T-shirt quilts, the circle quilts, adoption quilt, and some random magic show props and pillow covers. Whew!

I love quilting, the process of it all, but I do not enjoy basting a quilt whilst pregnant. Crawling around the floor is not a fun pasttime as is. Add a placenta and two people are miserable.

Enter the rag quilt! Now I don't have one of those fancy-schmancy die cutters so it does require a lot of patience in snipping all those raggy edges. HOWEVER! There is no basting and no binding. (I'll always love you, binding, but you are a little rough on the fingers.)

Not to mention how handy rag quilts are in using up charm packs. When I first started my quilt mania 5 years ago, I started buying charm packs of all the spectactular new lines out at the time (Flea Market Fancy, anyone?!) without really having a plan. I was studying for a board exam, hating life, and desperate for a creative outlet. I hadn't touched a sewing machine in years but throw some beautiful fabric in front of me and cha-ching! Gazillions of charm packs are sitting here looking at me for half a decade pleading to be used. Well used you shall be, my pretties.

I just finished up a rockets and robots rag quilt with David Walker fabric. Once it is washed and ready I'll post pictures of that too. I know, try to wait paitently. Both will be in the shop for all your frantic New Years shopping. I kinda misplaced my camera Thanksgiving and didn't get things ready for Christmas. Good timing.

May the peace of our Lord touch you this special time of year. A very blessed and Christ-centered Christmas to you and your families.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:17

Therese's Quilt

2010-11-23T03:41:00.000-08:00

First of all... yikes! The winner of the CSN giveaway that was supposed to be announced oh, about a month ago, is PAM! Congratulations, Pam! I'll send you an email with the info.

Recently I had the honor of making a quilt for a sweet little girl who will come from Africa to her newly adopted home here in The States. Her name is Therese and I really, really hope she loves her new quilt.

A lot of the fabrics are from MacKenzie of Dena Designs. There is one Kaffe Fassett print in there to add a little "African Flare" and one from Red Letter Day of Lizzy House.

I used a lavender chenille backing and made the binding from leftovers scraps of the quilt fabric. I can't remember if I've ever wrote about it before, but it IS possible to do free-motion-quilting with a chenille or minky backing. The secret is doing your FMQ with just the quilt top and batting -- NO FMQ'ING WITH THE BACK! Then do some straight-line/stitch in the ditch to attach the backing and you have the best of both worlds!

In other random sewing news...

For the first time ever I've entered a swap, the Hoop Up! Stitch and Send Swap on Flickr. This was a nice challenge for me. There are several groups of four people that each give their theme. Then each swapper creates something based on that theme and sends it to the person who wanted it. So not only is it fun to create something for another person but also you get some adorable little surprise in your mail as well! My swappees wanted a mandala and bird in a birdcage:

There was also a cereal design but I seem to have lost it for the time being! It is on the flickr link if you really have to see it. My designs are all done and sent and now I just sit back and wait to see what my partners stitched up for me! I highly recommend getting involved in a swap. There are quilt block swaps, pillow, coaster, and embroidery swaps... pretty much anything you can think of. It's a fun and relatively fast little project that helps to enhance your sewing skills. Plus it's always fun to meet new friends out there who don't look at you like you're a senior citizen just because you can use a needle and thread.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you US readers!!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

2010-11-01T11:45:00.001-07:00

A little late to the party, but nonetheless I wanted to partake in Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival.

It is always a great source of inspiration to me and so fun to participate in the frenzy of it all!

So this time around I have my circle quilt(s). It was a commission for a brother and sister. Adorable! Mostly made up of Kaffe Fassett fabrics with a little Amy Butler and Tina Givens thrown in. They are both twin size.

I must say with alllllll the circles I cut (108 fabric circles per quilt + 108 interfacing circles per quilt x 2 quilts = 432 circles!), the sanity lifesaver award goes to the Olfa rotary circle cutter. It was about $20 at JoAnn and worth every penny. Also using Steam a Seam for the interfacing was totally fantastic as it is sticky on both sides. Very helpful for eyeball placement on the squares and ironing. No, I'm not getting paid for this (but I'm certainly up for it!) just giving my helpful tips should you attempt a circle quilt in your future.

Something new to me... I went big on the binding. I cut my strips a whopping 6" wide. I love it. Especially with all the craziness of the busy fabrics going on, it kind of doubles as a border, giving the eye a place to rest. Ahhh...

And the brother quilt, which is also mostly Kaffe Fassett with a little Joel Dewberry in.

Orange flannel backing worked well. I was a little hesitant how flannel would do for free motion quilting, but it was a total champ. I taped and basted these suckers like never before! And it paid off - not one wrinkle or a pucker here.

Thanks for visiting me for this installment of Blogger's Quilt Festival! See y'all next year for more quilty fun. I predict a baby quilt in my future about that time of year. wink wink!

Ooooh, ottomans in October! + Giveaway!

2010-10-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

So I made this slip cover for my ottoman at home. I highly recommend washing it before posting pictures on the web for others when showing off your future new ottoman slip cover! I have washed it many times but apparently that was long ago...

Excuse me while I shrink that picture down to a microscopic level so that the filth is a little less noticeable.

If you are not in the mood for making one on your own, CSN stores would like to help supply you with a new (clean) ottoman coffee table.

Aren't they fab?! Of course if you are more the DIY kind of gal you can still enter to win the amazing $35 gift certificate to any of their oodles of stores to get something else like a bird feeder (my new obsession) or maternity clothes . Yeah, so... I kinda need some of those these days!!

Sorry, I always end up making these about me. ANYHOO, if you would like to be entered in the random drawing for the CSN gift certificate (and I highly recommend that you do!) please leave a comment here about a time when you got caught with a dirty house so I don't feel so bad about mine. Contest only open for US addresses, please. I will use random.org to find us a winner on HALLOWEEN, October 31st.

In other news... I have finished the circle quilts! They will be displayed in all their circle glory for Blogger's Quilt Festival coming up.

And probably the coolest thing ever done with a pumpkin (other than figuring out to make it into a pie), my dear friend surprised me with this.

How fun is that?! She actually broke out the drill for me! Way cool.
Don't forget to enter the giveaway now that I've distracted you with other news. :)

PS. Welcome Giveaway Scout peeps! I'm so excited to be listed with other fun blog giveaways and contests. Have a look around and by all means... enter that contest! Thanks for stopping by!

Circling the Wagons

2010-09-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

Hi, remember me? I used to write here frequently. I guess summertime can do that to ya. We've been having a most enjoyable summer. Nothing too grand, just relaxing and being. Being together has been so lovely.

We've taken a few day trips to Amish Country which is perfect for my Laura Ingalls-in-training. It makes a mama happy to see her daughter delight in such innocent and beautiful things like a rag doll or new bonnet.

And my new favorite fabric store, Miller's Dry Goods. I managed to find some Bliss precuts since the yardage had not yet arrived. Oh goodness, what a great fabric line that is! I also bought a few fat quarters of Fresh Cottons that were just so beautiful in person.

Other than shopping, I have been working on the circle quilts. Both quilt tops are done. Hooray! It has been so satisfiying to see these lovelies come together. Working on two twin quilts simultaneously has been a challenge but a good one. I have found sewing to be the ONE THING that stays done. Toys are picked up but always end up on the floor. Dinners are made but dishes follow soon behind. I have found sewing to be a great source of momentum in my life. It (almost) always goes forward, showing constant progress and tangible improvement. Of course I visit with my seam ripper from time to time but even then a quick fix isn't so bad.

So there they are. I also have another very special quilt I'm working on for a friend who is adopting. More to come on that. And since Halloween is coming there are tutus to be made as well. Hopefully I'll find the time to get back here sooner rather than later!

Hoping your days are warm and bright in this fantastic late summer season.

Winner! And more circle news

2010-08-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

Winner, winner chicken dinner! Random.org selected #3, Melissa. Congratulations and thank you for entering!

The circles are coming along nicely. This will eventually be a twin quilt with 108 squares. Each square is 8 1/2 inches with the circles inside measuring 6 inches.

Most fabrics are from Kaffe Fasset, but a lot are from my stash because I simply can't help myself. The more color the better in my world. I currently have 73 squares and circles done, so it is coming right along. I must say the two most helpful purchases for this quilt have been a circle cutter and Steam a Seam.

The circle cutter is a necessity if doing a circle quilt such as this. After this quilt is finished for big sister A, her little brother is also getting a twin size one. Therefore I will be cutting 436 circles (218 fabric circles and 218 interfacing circles)! I wasn't really about wasting fabric or having imperfect circles and this is exactly what I needed. As long as the blade is sharp, they come out perfect and fast. I can't recommend it enough. I bought mine at JoAnn with a 40% off coupon for less than $20. Worth every penny.

I also had an interesting predicament with the interfacing. The client's son has asthma so I had to be very careful with all the "ingredients" for the quilt. Eveything must be "non-toxic" and "no added chemicals". I was sure to wash and dry everything to eliminate any unwanted extras hanging around. I usually use a lightweight fusible interfacing for raw edge applique but we were unsure of what went into that. Thankfully I found out about Steam a Seam and it conforms to LHAMA Regulations (which means no toxins added). PLUS it washes up better than any interfacing I've ever used, so double bonus. The only downside is it is much more expensive, but at least no one will be ill.

Lately I'm pretty much convinced I'm the best mom ever.

I made the play tent from 2 Little Hooligans. They love it, I love it, everyone wins!

It consists of one hula hoop ($4) and three twin sheets ($4 each), so final price = $16. NICE! The tutorial states that it will take 2-3 hours start to finish. Um, not for me. More like 8-10 hours. But it was one of those projects I worked on when I needed a break from a quilt or something else.

Our AC went out last week (yes, in the middle of a nice long 90+ degree stretch!) so we have been frequenting the "Fairy Tent" for meals and play. You simply must be happy when you enter it, and I needed an extra dose of happy for sure. It will be great when we have to bring it in for winter as well. I'm thinking a great reading nook for them in the playroom.

GIVEAWAY! and some mini quilts

2010-08-09T17:40:00.000-07:00

Hello my happy readers!

I am very pleased to announce another giveaway! Woo hoo! This may seem a bit random, but it actually is in celebration of my dear, DEAR husband breaking yet another item in my - I mean THE - kitchen. Usually it's your basic glass or espresso cup (that was a birthday present). But this time it was the pepper shaker. As in - part of a set. They were so cute together. *sigh*

However, you have the divine opportunity to win your very own Salt and Pepper Shakers or whatever other fancy schmancy Corelle you desire.

So go ahead and leave a comment here about what your husband has broke around the house and I'll pick a random winner Friday night. (Sorry, only US readers please.) The winner will receive a gift certificate to CSN stores which is a major score because they sell everything under the sun. It's your chance to stock up on those breakables!

Personally, I've had my eye on these pressure cookers for the upcoming canning season. Those maters just get bigger everyday!!

And in the sewing front... I'm playing with circles!

I've recently been commissioned to make two circle quilts which require a lot of practice. So here are some mini-quilts of my circle experimentation.

For a 5-yr-old girl that just doesn't want to be "little" any more. How sad for her mama!

For a 3-yr-old boy that really doesn't care! ;)

So I embroidered a road for him to drive his matchbox cars and made some of the circles bumpy for hills. Who's the coolest 3-yr-old now?!

A fast finish

2010-07-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

I never really set out to do something fast, but when it happens, I get sooo excited. I had a custom order for a T-shirt quilt that was completely finished in less than two weeks. These were extremely well-behaved shirts.

It also helped that my client was crazy-organized. She sent a color picture of the design with her shirts (which were washed and smelling extra fresh) and took about 0.4 seconds to pick her coordinating fabrics for sashing and backing.

Incase you are wanting to make one for yourself, here are some numbers you might find handy:

I used exactly 3 yards of heavyweight iron-on interfacing for the back of the shirts (12 total squares, 13.5" wide).

1 yard of the navy sashing 3" wide

2 yards for the yellow borders 5" wide

4 yards for the pink backing + cornerstones (3" squares).

I used a navy binding from my stash since there wasn't enough of the calico remaining. My rule of thumb in binding colors - frame your art! I originally thought about using the yellow to blend with the borders but my instincts told me otherwise and I'm glad I obeyed. The navy looks much better on the front and the back than the yellow would have. Whew, close one!

Totally random, but have you ever seen someone eat a tomato like an apple? My youngest girl appropriately enjoyed our first tomato of the season.

Let's take a trip

2010-07-14T03:45:00.000-07:00

Well, that was a month! I have been abundantly blessed to have had some very special opportunities lately. Sit back, get comfortable, and join me on a trip down Sewing Memory Lane!

My most recent finish:

My one and only nephew turns two this week! I think every two-year-old boy needs a sock monkey quilt, don't you? Another quilt-as-you-go project and it worked beautifully again.

Well, if you don't count ripping out the quilting because the original minky backing was a disaster.

What I learned: don't use it if you can't tape it on the floor for basting. That should have been my first clue that quilting (even straight-line-quilting) was not going to go well.

I bought this great flannel and put a little monkey surprise with it and it went soooo much better.

Remember those totally rad blankets I made to protect my hydrangeas from the late spring frost? I think they worked!!!! Last year (and well, every year) we get a maximum of 4 flowers on the bushes. Not this year! They are bursting with color and they are gorgeous!

My second puppet is complete. She's actually going to go to a Ventriloquist Convention this week. Wow, talk about an amazing opportunity. I got to make a puppet! For a professional puppet person! I get a little emotional to think of how far the Lord has brought me out of the pit I was in. Sorry, no hyperlink for that one. Just giving thanks to our great God!

Another pastel commission! :) But it had actual colors in it, so I was ok.

Watermelon.

More watermelon.

I was asked to make the banner for my neighborhood's July 4th Parade! More to come on this as it was a crash course in applique.

Another charity sewing event. This time we made pillowcase dresses for little girls in Haiti. I was so thrilled to see more ladies come who have never sewn a thing in their life. Hopefully they left feeling motivated and ready to try it again and again. We finished the night with 17 dresses with more to come from a few who could not attend. Awesome.

Whew! Thanks for staying with me during the hiatus and for the trip down Sewing Memory Lane. More good clean sewing fun is to be had this summer for sure. What lovelies are you sewing this summer?

A blogable offense

2010-06-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

Actually, the offenses are three-fold: new Belle skirt, picking strawberries, and drippy red chins.

First, the skirt. Browsing through the remnant box at JoAnn's one day, Isabella found this bright yellow sparkle silky piece. "Mom, will you make me a Belle dress? Please, Mommy? Please, please, pleeeeeeeeese?" Yes, a thousand times yes. Even though I knew it would never be a dress, more like a skirt. But still, she is thrilled and it's one of those plant flowers/pick berries/first thing right out of bed in the morning skirts.

Unrelated: the plants are in! Four-year-olds are actually kind of helpful. She never ceases to amaze me.

She wanted this skirt to look like Princess Belle's from Beauty and the Beast (usually the whole Princess thing makes me uneasy but being handmade makes me cringe much less). I sewed up some scrap muslin for lining, put some crinoline (stiff netting/tulle) on top, and then the yellow fabric on top of that. Elastic casing, eyelet hem on the muslin and ta-da... BELLE!

Since the yellow was a remnant at 50% off and I already had the muslin and crinoline on hand, the whole project took about $5 and a good 2 hours. A most excellent way to break up my mega quilt days.

Which brings me to the second offense... strawberry picking! It's one of my favoritest things to do. Ever. I remember being a little punk and my mama taking me strawberry picking on Wednesday afternoons (her office was closed on Wednesday afternoons for some reason). So you better believe I'm taking the kiddies out every chance I get to pick berries whether we use them or not! Who am I kidding, those things are gone within hours these days.

Yep, different day, same skirt! Success!!

Oh my lands, this picture makes me laugh and then cry. It's an instant classic. The Drippy Red Chin/Hand/Shirt. I'm pretty sure she ate a lot of over-ripe, not-quite-ripe, and certainly perfectly ripe berries with greens. Her appetite knows no end.

Here's to handmade princess skirts and fresh-picked fruit this summer!

It's Time

2010-06-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

Time to stop hoarding the really adorable hedgies and put them to work

(Same goes to you too, Chum Chum Bear mushrooms.)

Time to spruce up the home with things that match my new aqua/Windswept walls.

It's time to get our hands dirty

Time for a new air freshener

It's time to get a little closer to our food

And now that it's June, it is certainly time to head out!

Happy unofficial start of summer!

This Moment

2010-05-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, time for This Moment. Head over to SouleMama, the originator of This Moment posts, for some backyard camping fun!

For us, it's dance recital time. I admit, I've totally underestimated her courage to dance.

On a stage.

In front of people.

She's gonna shine!

Mine all mine

2010-05-24T15:57:00.001-07:00

My first sewing project for me. Well, it's for all of us, but it's still a first. I bought these Sandi Henderson fabrics from her Meadowsweet line long ago thinking it would make the perfect picnic blanket. I added a few of my own fat quarters from the stash and it came together nicely.

I forgot to take pictures of the back which is a "vintage linen" (aka old bed sheet) from my mother-in-law. They are perfect for this project. It was unbelievably simple (and free).

To estimate, this project took a little over $20 (I only buy fabric on sale!) and about 6 hours to complete. I started using Sew Mama Sew's tutorial but did not even attempt to cut my batting to size (61" square?! Not even possible for me) . I'm more of a "make it bigger and then trim the excess" gal. Here's how I did it:

*Make blanket top by sewing 16 fat quarters together

*Spread out on top of batting

*Cut batting about 3" larger than the blanket top on all sides

*Now tape batting on ground with blue painter's tape, stretching it taut

*Put blanket top on top of batting (right side up), smoothing out wrinkles and ensure fit

*Baste with safety pins, about 8" apart

*Stitch in the ditch with sewing machine (or lovely hand stitching if you are crazy - I mean, accomplished), sewing top and batting together. Now trim the batting to size, and be sure to save all your batting scraps!

*Spread "vintage linen" (backing) on floor, right side up, pull taut and tape.

*Baste top/batting combo on top of backing, batting side up (so that backing and top are right sides together)

*Sew around perimeter, leaving about a foot unsewn. Clip corners. Turn right side out, and top stitch all the way around, being sure to close the hole in the topstitch.

It's worth every minute of effort when those kids jump and run and play on it. My only regret is not making it big enough to cover the entire lawn.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

2010-05-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, thank you everyone for such a great giveaway week. Amanda wins the bag o' scraps and Shelly brings home the CSN gift certificate. Congrats!!

Once again, Amy is hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival which could rank right up there with my birthday. It is always so nice to see what other bloggy quilters (or is it quilty bloggers) are doing. I love to see others' works of art! So without further ado, here is my most recent finish and my favorite quilt ever...

... the Love quilt.

Finished size is a standard double (78" x 87"). I used a lovely mint green thread on most of the quilt and it worked great for this collection. Although my OCD kicked in while quilting and I did try to use coordinating thread colors (which greatly increases the time factor) when possible.

Verdict about Quilt as You Go method - it rocks. I love how it comes together so fast. I love how the quilt feels as a finished product. All that thread makes it heavy and more comforting to me. Free motion quilting a double (even on my super swell Janome) would have been a nightmare. QAYG allows anyone with any machine to accomplish great things! Except sewing the back and front together (stitch in the ditch between all 12 1/2" squares) was doable because of the excellent harp area on the Janome.

*Edited to add: I thought I should clarify that I did not use sashing inbetween each of the blocks. Once I "stitched in the ditch" the seam allowances were not the least bit bulky. I had some emails about how it came together, so please feel free to ask about anything I have failed to include here. Really! *

The scrappy binding was a no-brainer on this one... too bad it took my no-brain an entire day to realize that!

It's really forgiving in that stitches needn't be perfect, and if you decide half-way through piecing your quilt front that you want to do it - you can! Just grab some batting and start sewing it down. Straight-line quilting, free-motion quilitng, whatever you fancy.

The very creative client dreamed up the design on the back. I think it rocks my socks.

Love will soon be going overseas to her mama. A wonderful quilt to a wonderfuler friend. :)

Infact, I loved doing it so much that I started another one!

Some sweet little nephew of mine is turning 2!

May GIVEAWAY Day!

2010-05-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks for stopping by for Giveaway Day -- We have a winner!! 296 comments... awesome! Thanks, everyone!

Random.org generated...

#53 - Amanda from little cumulus

CONGRATS!

**BUT there is still time to enter the CSN Giveaway. Winner drawn Friday! GO GO GO!!!

I have been crankin' out the quilts this year and have lots of scraps to prove it! From Amy Butler, Tina Givens, Heather Bailey, Joel Dewberry, and more.

Smile if you love Giveaway Day!

Want great designer fabric for free? Do ya, do ya?

Just a small smattering of those included

Well, just leave a comment here and Iz will pull a winner out of the hat on Thursday, May 20th. Sorry, only US addresses are up for this one. Postage stinks. Sorry. Really!

Back of LOVE quilt

Be sure to check back later this week ... a very differnt giveaway will be happening. All I'm gonna say is it rhymes with schmentertainment schmenter.

Giveaway + Giveaway = Lucky YOU!

2010-05-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hello dearest bloggy friends!

This post will have very little to do with sewing. Partly because I'm fighting with some very unsticky tape whilst basting. Grrrr. So really, I'm not in the mood to blog about wasting time taping and watching the tape untape itself then running around the house looking for more unsticky tape only for the cycle to repeated over and over again....

White masking tape=bad. Blue painter's tape = good.

Remember I did this Quilt As You Go method to SAVE TIME.

Anyhoo, since I'm a little sour over tape hopefully this will cheer us all up... ANOTHER GIVEAWAY!

Because I'm in a non-sewing mood, let's talk about... oh I don't know... entertainment centers! Racks and Stands.com has oodles of options for old school TVs and those of you with new-fangled skinny TVs. Personally, my (very) old school TV is shoved in a corner of the room behind the couch, blocking the lower left quarter of the screen. Which makes it quite humerous to me that this giveaway features something that I want but can't have.... oh so close!

So if any of you have a similar problem or would just like a sweet update, leave a comment here and I'll have Iz pull a winner out of the hat Friday morning. The winner will receive a $40 gift certificate to use in any CSN stores (US and Canadian addresses only, please).

GIVEAWAY #2... May 17th is Sew Mama Sew's MAY GIVEAWAY DAY! I'm giving away some fabric. CLICK ON THIS to enter that one.

Both contests open to US and Canadian residents only.

And I saved the best for last... Happy Birthday, friend! (It would be totally rad of you to send her some birthday love!)

Isn't that picnic blanket of hers adorable?!

Quilt as you go

2010-05-14T03:56:00.000-07:00

Oh, this is a fun one! Both the quilt top and back are finished.

Finished top looking super sweet in the shade

You may remember I had pieced a bunch of oddball shaped rectangles - some 2' x 3' , some bigger and smaller. Then I realized things would be a lot easier if I would stick with a consistent size. So I straight-line quilted these funky things directly onto some batting and when all were completed, I chopped them into 12.5" squares.

Just to recap - usually QAYG means piecing directly onto the batting which is obviously the best way to go about things. But since I didn't know I would be doing this method when I began this quilt, I've been improvising.

So the good news is that you can choose to do this at any stage in the game! Especially if your quilt just seems to grow and grow and you worry how you're ever going to put it all together.

Since I'm making a double size quilt (78" x 87"), I made 42 of these squares and then sewed all of them together for the quilt top (and batting). I used my regular presser foot for everything up to this stage just to see how my totally rad machine could handle it. No problemo!

Quilt back waiting to join the lovely front

Next is putting them together. Not as hard core basting as usual, but a night crawling around on my hands and knees nonetheless. Hopefully it goes faster this way. I'll keep you posted!

**Be sure to stay tuned, more giveaways are coming soon!!**

A winner + Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T19:29:00.000-07:00

My big girl picked #2, badlandsquilts as our pattern giveaway winner. Congratulations and happy sewing! Thanks for entering the giveaway, hopefully more to come.

Happy Mother's Monday to all. Even if you're not a mother, we all have a mom and that is reason to celebrate!

Sewing for boys {GIVEAWAY!}

2010-05-05T12:21:00.000-07:00

Recently something very strange happened. One of my friends had a baby and it wasn't a girl. It was a .... what do you call it?... B -b-boy. Yes, that's it. She had a boy. Don't see many of them around here, so I tend to forget they have sewing needs too. A little more difficult to find boyish fabric and think of something to make that is not a skirt or dress, but I think I found my go-to handmade boy gift.

Seriously, look at him!! Anybody seen my briefcase?

I found the pattern on Etsy. I found it to be... well, a pattern. I can't follow one to save my life. Honestly, I have no clue what's wrong with me. I never buy patterns, but I thought this was so cute, I would take the time to figure it out.
So I purchased it and finally got up the nerve to try it out during a late-night sew-in with a friend. I knew I would need the support, so I waited until someone was with me. There's just something about reading it aloud to someone, saying "Listen, this does not make any sense..... Oh wait, nevermind."

After about three hours of White Russians (the drink, not people), a brownie-peanut butter crockpot goo (oh baby), and lots of sewing merriment... the tie was made. I'm thinking it would take a normal person (clearly I am not) about an hour or two. The pattern was well-illustrated, of which I was very appreciative. Nothing helps a non-pattern follower more than a bunch of pictures. There were seriously pictures of every step.

Ok, so I made it a little long. I was kind of winging the size, but he can grow into it. There is elastic that goes around the neck so it can stretch over his sweet little head. The length can be adjusted somewhat, but the back of the tie is pretty much as low as it can go. I'm sure the process will go faster as I learn how to do it better. It's worth the effort because it is so very cute! I'm really pleased with the pattern overall and do recommend sewing one up for the little men in your life.

And now for the good stuff! DeLynne over at diy by dainty couture (where I purchased the pattern) is offering one of my readers a FREE PATTERN of your choice. No worries if you don't have boys around either, she has plenty of skirts, dresses, and other great patterns. Mr Random Number Generator will pick our winner on Sunday - Mother's Day! All you have to do is leave a comment about mothers. Being a mom, having a mom, wishing you had someone else's mom, etc. ;) It's a PDF file, so the winner will receive their free pattern soon after the giveaway closes at midnight Saturday night. Instant and free.... sweet!

In other sewing news... Pastel Quilt #2 is done! Good-bye you bland, lifeless colors.

Quilt-as-you-go updates on the way. Almost done with the "quilting" part, about to start on the "as you go" process.

One Million Pillowcase Challenge

2010-04-28T03:28:00.000-07:00

We did it! Somebody showed! Actually, lots of somebodies showed!

From the instant I saw American Patchwork and Quilting's site about sewing pillowcases for local charities, I was excited. Their goal is to donate 1 million pillowcases to various charities. I love their description:

"A pillowcase can provide comfort for a cancer patient, hope for a foster child, encouragement for a battered woman, or beauty for a nursing home resident."

So I organized a night of sewing for anyone. Newbies, not-so-newbies, anyone who wanted to come and learn. Sewing machines were donated by my friendly churchladies which was a huge blessing. Many women showed up who have never sewn before and do not even have a machine at home. How cool is that!

We were able to donate over 20 pillowcases to a local charity (Our Ronald McDonald house). What a rush to have women of all ages and stages of sewing skills come together to help, learn, and sew. Everyone encouraging one another and sharing a laugh over sewing machines. I definetly recommend you organizing a night of sewing too. It was so good for the soul in many ways. My dream is to meet regularly, making new charitable projects and teaching new skills, encouraging mothers and daughters to come together....

I can't wait for our next go at it!

Quilt as you go

2010-04-21T03:55:00.000-07:00

The LOVE quilt is about to be the victim of a new (to me) quilting method.

After reading Penny's blog and her Quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) tutorial, I've decided to give it a try. I have enough pieces for the quilt top now. The final size being a standard double, most of these "pieces" are about 2' x 3'.

I've read up on a lot of different methods for QAYG. Some recommend sashing between blocks which I will not be doing on this crazy quilt. Some also give instructions for quilting the backing with the top and batting. That would be great for another quilt, but it won't work for the backing we have planned for this one. Mostly because the fabric design does not lend itself to being pieced:

Penny's tutorial described quilting the top and batting first - actually piecing the quilt onto the batting. Well, since my piecing is done, I think I'm going to take all of these wonderful methods and make my own!

I love that about quilting. I can try new things, get tips from others, and even if I fail miserably... the seam ripper is always close by.

This Moment

2010-04-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

Another special moment.

I went outside during the girls' nap/quiet time to cut some fabric. Looking back at the house, I see a little face looking back at me in her window. (She's graduated from nap time to quiet time. Please don't think I abandon my children in the house while I go out to enjoy the sun!) So I motioned for her to come out with me and we sipped some lemonade on the blanket.

She just turned 4. She's getting too big to carry. I'm not ready for that.

I am, however ready for a new picnic blanket. Must...quilt...soon...

Also, "this moment" and many, many moments before and after are being dedicated to a new quilt to match some pillows you may remember...

I must admit when this line (Love, by Amy Butler) came out, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Now after a couple months with it, I'm still not sick of seeing it, so I guess I really like it. Especially in this form - all jumbled up and crazy together. It's so busy, loud, and cheerful, one must smile looking at it.

It's eventually going to end up a double size (78" x 87") and I"m only half-way there, so we have many more moments together.

Pastel Schmastel

2010-04-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

I LOVE making custom quilts. It's my favorite sewing activity. Quilting is super fun for me, but when it's for someone I know (even just a little), a whole new piece of my heart gets involved. It is such a laborious project, often taking weeks or months or yes... even years if you are a good procrastinator like me.

So I received a custom quilt project a few months ago that involved only pastels. Ugh. I hate pastels. I know God made all colors and all creation quite beautifully. But really... I see pastels serving the same purpose as decaffinated coffee. Why bother?

And when I finally came to terms with this pastel thing, I learned only two were going to be used - green and yellow. OH MAN! First I have to limit myself to sad washed-out lifeless pastels only to realize that it will be even more colorless (yes, that's right - MORE COLORLESS, that's for all you pessimists out there) with just two.

The crazy soft minky backing was my favorite part of this quilt. The client wanted free-motion-quilting on the front, which minky doesn't work well with. So I quilted just the front and batting together. Then quilted "in the ditch" with the backing so everything was secure. It worked well, I recommend this process for all your free-motion but minky-backed projects.

I had to dig deep on this one; I won't lie. There was a lot of stress in this house over such a little project. But it got done and the recipient loved it and...

her friend requested an identical green and yellow pastel quilt.

Joy.

R is for...

2010-04-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

Resurrection!

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said." Matthew 28:5-6

Red Cross quilt by Susie Swan

He's Alive! We're forgiven and Heaven's doors are open wide. I don't know about you but all I can say to that is Hallelujah!!!!

Vineyard Quilt by Batikart

In His awesome timeliness, this is our 'R' week here at Pretend Homeschool. (BTW, 'J' week just happened to be the week of Christmas!) Hoping your Easter is blessed by knowing Christ died for you. You can't go to heaven for simply being a good person.

photo from knitalatte

When you trust in what Christ has done on the cross, and in no works of your own (since they aren't good enough anyway), then the righteousness of Christ is given to you -- even as your sins were "given" to Jesus. It's like a trade. He gets your sin. You get His righteousness.
Once you have trusted in what Christ has done, then you possess eternal life and you will never face the judgment of God.

Quilt by the empty bobbin

Quilted Pillow Covers {Tutorial}

2010-03-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

So I've been making lots of new pillow covers for my very favorite UK resident.

She (wisely) chose the entire Amy Butler LOVE line which is a beauty. What a pleasure to work with these super cheery fabrics.

Group Picture

Ok, everyone smile and say "cheeeese!"

I thought I would share the (kind of long but totally worth it) process with you so that your sofa will look crazy awesome too. You're welcome.

Supplies:

Fabric - can be various scraps. Should be at least two yards total.

All the sewing stuff - machine, thread, scissors

Blue painter's tape or ye ol' masking tape

Safety pins (curved are preferred, but normal are fine)

Batting - I use Warm & Natural

Cord - usually found in the upholstering section of Joann's with grommets and other fun stuff. Don't be intimidated as I was the first time I ventured out of the fabric section. Just find the size you like and ask the nice lady to cut a few yards for you. (Make sure you figure that part out at home first, though.)

Degree of difficulty - probably not a good first project, but you don't have to be a rocket scientist. I guess I'd say advanced beginner. I mean, it's just sewing. With these thorough directions, anyone could make it! :)

Let's begin, shall we?
First, make the front of your pillow. Be it patchwork or some sweet design. Just sew that puppy together and make sure it's slightly bigger on all sides than your pillow form. This tutorial is for a 20" x 20" pillow, so the front was about 21 inches square.

Yes, you need to iron it. No, don't worry about trimming it up and cutting it to size.

Next - cut a piece of batting also about an inch (or more) larger than the form.

Dear Eco-Sewers and Cheap Skates, save all batting from your quilts and sew it together for small projects like this. I know!!! Just set your machine to the widest, biggest, bestest zigzag you have and butt those pieces together. Try not to overlap the edges as it won't lay flat under the finished piece. My new motto: Economical, Efficient, Environmental. Hubs thinks I'm joking when I say it, but really, it's free batting, people!
Love, me

Ok, moving on... We have the top, the middle, and now... the back:

If this were the back of a quilt, it had better be ironed and beautiful. However, this is the back of the front of the pillow. It will never been seen. Ever. So use whatever you like, but for goodness sake, don't pay money for it.

Now that we have all three layers for the front of our sweet pillow, it is time to prepare a little sandwich. Hold the mayo - it's a quilt sandwich.

Lay cheapo backing on the floor. Have the blue painter's tape handy. Tape at least once on each side, pulling the fabric kinda tight. Taut? I'll stick with tight.

If this were an actual quilt, I'd recommend taping the heck out of it, pulling as tight as you can. But like I said before - it's the back of the front of a pillow. It will never ever be seen.

Adding to the quilt sandwich, next lay your batting on top:

And then the front (pretty side up):

All three layers should be visible all the way around the quilt. The idea is that when you quilt (sew through all the layers), things can pull and "shrink" and you want to eliminate the possibility of the front being larger than the back at all costs. Then the whole size of the pillow is shot. Trust me.

Now you'll need those safety pins. Curved are preferable (Walmart, $2), but normal ones will do. Pin the center first and then work away from the center, smoothing the front as you go.

Don't try and look at my watch to see what time I did this. It was nap time.
That's how I tell time here - nap time and non-nap time.

I'm pointing at the first safety pin placed in the center.
I'm not much for rules in sewing, but it's kind of important.

Keep pinning and pinning. They should be about 4 inches apart. Work from the center up, then the center down, center left and center right. Obviously the pillow won't know if you work from the center right before you go left - I'm just giving an example of working methodically to keep the fabric tight... taut.

Now it's time to quilt this baby! Again keeping the whole taut thing in mind (I just looked it up on dictionary.com, turns out I was right!) - as the needle is going up and down, your hands should be pulling away from each other, keeping the fabric as taut as possible.

Please don't be too jealous of my unmanicured naturally supple hands.

I use a water-soluable marker to guide my sewing when quilting straight lines. That's the blue line you see. After sewing, I just use a wet toothbrush to take the lines away.

I'm here to tell you that you can indeed make your own piping. Yes, you! Piping!

I chose to use the same fabric as the backing. Cut enough strips so that they are a few inches longer than the actual diameter of the pillow. So for four sides of a 20-inch pillow... I need a little more than 80 inches of both cord and fabric.

I have about 84 inches of cord here:

Cut fabric strips one and a quarter inches wide:

Lay corners right sides together and sew top left to bottom right at 45-degree angle.

Now sew them together as shown (on blue mark) to get one looooong continuous strip, also about 84 inches long.

Trim away the excess, about 1/4" after the seam:

Seam should look as such when sewn together:

Now to put fabric casing around the cord to make your very own piping!

Fold the strip in half long-ways with cord in the center. Keep the raw edges together. Most people pin, but I am not a pinner - I'm much too impatient for such things. So keep them together with your method of choice. Get out the zipper foot and sew with the needle as close to the cord as possible. Go slow and stop as often as you need to keep it nice and neat. You've worked hard so far - don't screw it up now!! :)

Ta-daaa! Eighty-four inches of glorious piping!

Now is the time to trim up your quilt sandwich to 20 inches square. If you like an extra fluffy pillow, make it smaller. If you like it a little flatter, go a little larger.

Using your zipper foot, sew the piping onto the quilt sandwich you created earlier. Be sure to keep the raw edges of the piping aligned with the raw edges of the quilt sandwich. Pin if you must. Go ahead, I'll wait.

So now you should have the assembled and quilted top of the pillow cover with piping sewn on. Be proud, very proud of this accomplishment. For the back of the pillow, choose your fabric and try to follow these awesome math skillz.

For an envelope closure, the two back pieces should overlap by at least 6 inches for a 20-inch pillow. For smaller pillows, they don't need to overlap as much, but any less than four inches and you could be asking for trouble. Sounds serious, huh?

For this pillow, I cut two pieces of backing fabric 21" x 13".

Sew just ONE long side of EACH panel to make a hem. Fold 1/4 inch, baste (the long stitch) and iron if you wish. Then fold another 1/4 inch and sew nice and pretty. Sometimes I use a decorative stitch here. But just on one side because the other will be hidden underneath.

Ok, hang in there! We're almost done! (More of a pep talk for myself to keep writing this! The sewing is much more fun.)

Next - place the panel that you would like to see the most of face down first on top of the quilted front so that right sides are facing. Next, lay down the other panel also face down, overlapping the first.

The two back panels should completely cover the front of the pillow.

Ok, let's get that zipper foot back on the machine now. Reach down deep to find your Super-Feely Fingertip Superpower. Just as you made your own piping (you did go through with it, didn't you?!), get the needle as close to the cord as possible. Since it's under the backing, you won't be able to see it - at all. Just use your Fingertip Feely Superpower and do your best. Slowly stitch all the way around the pillow. If the needle gets away, just cut the thread and get back on track. Stay with it! The closer you stitch to the cording, the neater the finished product will be.

After you've stitched all the way around, flip the pillow right side out and insert your pillow form.

It's gonna rock. The wonderful quilty-soft front will be so perfect to lay your now-weary head on for a well-deserved nap. I told you it was worth it.

I'm so proud of you!

Adventures in pretend homeschooling

2010-03-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

As Bella's preschool closed last fall, we have been pretending to have our very own preschool here at home. I love it. Will it continue? I hope so, but who knows...

As with the rest of motherhood, I am completely winging it. We began a little "Letter of the Week" deal. I print out the letter (upper and lower case) on cardstock, she practices writing it, we write a few simple words beginning with that letter, and then maybe a hands-on craft or field trip. It's working well. Really well! Sometimes it takes us 2 or 3 weeks to move along to the next letter and sometimes we are on track.

All of our "letters" are kept in a 3-ring notebook for her to look at and keep organized. She likes to use markers, crayons, colored pencils, any sort of new writing tool that she is excited about at that time. It is one colorful notebook that is beginning to be it's own work of art!

So last week was letter P. A good one for us (semi)Italians! Pizza last Saturday with Pasta on the following Saturday. Also a trip to the zoo to pay special attention to the Penguins, Pythons, and Parrots.

This week is Q. I'm down with quilting and all, but I'm a little stumped with a cooking item. Quiche might not be realistic and I'm fresh out of quail eggs. Could be visiting R quite soon!

This Moment

2010-02-26T10:14:00.001-08:00

As usual, I was left very inspired by SouleMama's post today. Titled this moment, she beautifully captured the essence of what is now for her.

A few nights ago, Isabella and I finished up the last chapter of Little House in the Big Woods where Laura, at a mere six years old, reflected on how much she loved her now. I could barely squeak out the words because it was so touching to think of a little girl so in love with what was around her and wanting nothing else in the whole world.

Amanda (SouleMama) then finished the post by inviting us to do the same - reflect on our present moments.

Things have been a bit rocky here lately. Colds, cabin fever, a strong-willed toddler, a short-fused mama.... But looking at this picture from a couple of days ago reminds me of how much I do indeed love my now. Even with the bumps in the road, it's all one big wonderful mess.

A fun-loving, adventuresome-dressing almost 4-year old just begging to have her picture taken.

A strong-willed, curious, grabby, insistant toddler needing to investigate the picture process.

This shot says it all.

First finish of the year

2010-02-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

Just finished my first big quilty project of the year. An absolutely adorable custom project for my new friend in the UK. Oh yeah, I'm international, baby!

Front of quilt

Back of quilt

Embroidered the child's artwork on each piece

What fun it was to work on this. Even though it brought out some (brand) new techniques. Made my own piping on the pillow. Woo hoo!! Could not find the right shade of green so I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go. Totally not very hard at all. Turns out I was nervous-eating all day for no good reason!

Also, the embroidery was a new thing to tackle. I've done your basic cross stitch since I was a wee lass, but this was way new. Lucky for me, I found a great book on teaching the necessary stitches. I recommend for you, dear reader(s) -- haha! : Doodle Stitching by Aimee Ray. Excellent for no-medium skill on the embroidery scale. Lots of cute projects too. The descriptions are pretty good. I'm sooo not good at following patterns, directions, authority - you name it. So the fact that I actually read the book (many times) and referenced it whilst I was sewing says a lot.

We all have something new to learn and do, right??

Craft Hope for Haiti

2010-01-20T17:47:00.000-08:00

I've donated some items and there are oodles of others too. 100% of the proceeds go to Doctors without Borders to help with the devastation in Haiti. Please go shopping to donate to these wonderful workers and residents.

The ups and downs of sewing

2010-01-15T11:07:00.000-08:00

Lots of things have been starting and stopping lately. I guess that's why I've been able to post some blogs. Inbetween things, I have a little time to sit a spell.

Up: The Wonky Whirlygig is progressing!
Down: Progressing so much that I need to get more of the ivory sateen. I've really been trying to just buy what I know I'm going to use, but I hate going to the store a gazillion times for boring sashing.

Up: Yay! The cubicle I've always dreamed of! Isabella felt quite important when I put her 3-bin craft organizer by mommy's "sewings". I'm using the cubes for collections and the color-coded pull-out organizer for scraps and random fabrics. The blue "man-box" on top there was my birthday present. Not very pretty, but soooo very handy for the little odds and ends like rick-rack, elastic, bias tape maker, etc. I used to waste so much time searching for things and this is such a sanity saver!
Down: Seriously, nothing. Just wish I had more!

Up: I made my first baby shoes! Poor little kiddo of mine is a professional sock-taker-offer. So I thought little Valentines shoes were in order. I pulled the elastic in the back extra tight so she wouldn't be able to pull them off and her tootsies would be toasty warm all winter long.

Down: Hubby noticed that the elastic was cutting into her skin and toes were turning purple . Oopsy. Circulation can be so overrated. But she didn't get them off! No, we took them off and now they are making the rounds on Bella's dolls. Guess I'll try, try again.

New Year... new quilt!

2010-01-14T17:21:00.001-08:00

The Wonky Whirlygig

I'm way late jumping on the whirlygig bandwagon, but I'm ok with that. I started making these little (only about 3" squares!) guys just after new years. I had a 5" charm pack of Benartex City Blooms by Kitty Yoshida that I wasn't sure what to do with. AND I've had a bug in my bonnett (reading a lot of Little House on the Prairie lately!) to do something other than another square-in-a-square quilt. So here we go... my first whirlygig!

I know, they're going different directions. I didn't think to pay attention to how the charm pack was laying while I was cutting a couple squares at a time. They were all wrong - sides together. So just a note to you future whirlygigles out there: check them charms! But I'm hoping it will give the quilt movement and make the eye dance around at all the different styles. Since I made my own templates, they are definetly wonky. Fine by me! I love to use quilting as my main method of chilling out. If I find myself getting frustrated by piecing and getting all exact on things, I'm likely to not finish the project for a few decades.

Hubby bought me a sweet 9-cube organizer thing from Target last weekend! I had way too much fun sorting and folding my fabric. Pictures to follow. Seems like a lot of you are in the organizing mode. I could use about 14 more of them, but I'm thrilled with this one for now.

2009 in Review

2010-01-04T08:59:00.000-08:00

Eight quilts, 2 puppets, a gajillion tutus and more ... what a year!

Blankets... They're not just for people anymore

2010-01-04T04:03:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post about my Bush Blankets from fall.

I made these little guys for my hydrangeas. It seems that they do ok until one last late freeze in the spring and that zaps the buds. Which makes for big leafy green bushes without the pretty flowers all summer long. No thanks.

So hopefully this route will work. It was basically a scrap buster. Just sewed the circles on and left the raw edges exposed. I did it all on the old machine, but it still went pretty fast.

So incase you have the same situation, here's how I did it:

Get a bunch of chicken wire (or something similar) and put it around the plant. I pushed up all the leaves and Mr. Pin Cushion put the wire around. Then I measured the diameter of the wire. They were each in the 90-inch range. So I then made the wrap a little longer and sewed on the circles.

For closures, I started with velcro but that didn't last through some rain storms so I used little elastic loops and buttons instead. I'm happy to say they are still standing and add some much-needed color with the white snow against the white siding on the house. I'll update in the spring when I take them off after the frost! I hope it works!

She's heeeeeere!

2009-12-22T12:37:00.000-08:00

Janome, meet the blog. Blog, Janome.

Ok, so it's a tad anti-climatic. It's been over a month now and I've been through major sewing machine stress. I thought I would be showing you pictures of my new Viking 1100, major Craig's List steal. Actually, the very generous lady who had it for sale decided to give it to me once we got to her house. I was in tears from her kind act.

Then I took it to be serviced before using it and they called a week later to say it needed over $600 worth of help. Apparently the sewing head had been damaged and that, my friends, did not sound good.

So the search began again...

And on Black Friday, I purchased my totally awesome sewing machine. It's used, scratched up, and missing a knee-lift, but I got a major deal on it. I had no idea I would end up with such a big-time machine. I mean, afterall, I've been using my little Brother 2600 forever now. But here's the deal... I knew I needed a machine with a bigger throat/harp area (I've heard both terms used interchangeably) and after seeing what ballpark of coinage I'd be in (yikes!), I decided I had better get the most for my money.

Enter, the Janome (rhymes with Baloney) Memory Craft 6500. (And it says "Professional" on the front. Squeeeeel!) She not only has a rockin' throat (honestly, I gag every time I think of this term), but awesome embroidery powers and some sweet computerized thingy-majigs like needle up/down, make a knot so I don't ruin the quilt, and other things yet to be explored.

The orange quilt is done and given to my sweet, sweet aunt who watches the girls all.the.time.

And I just got the quilting done on the Tina Givens quilt. Seriously, this machine moves really fast and I am crankin' out the quilts in no time flat!!

I hope you are crankin' too if need be. You know, last-minute people, you! But hopefully you are really slowing down and enjoying the beauty of the Christmas season. A tiny bit of snow is falling here which makes it even better.

Merry Christmas to you!

Flea Market Fancy Freaks

2009-11-20T12:50:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm a freak.

And I love this fabric line!

Awesome giveaway going on, so check it out! (And maybe share a FQ with me if you win?)

Animal House

2009-11-06T04:24:00.000-08:00

A new puppet in the works. He/she doesn't have a name yet, but it's big and blue and kinda creepy from this perspective if you ask me. Never thought I'd be making these, but it is fun to experiment with different fabrics (fur and felt to name a few!) and new methods of sewing. Once stuffed, however, he/she/it really looks fun.

A jellyfish for Halloween! Speaking of new fabrics, the shimmery skirt was a fun little whip-up. I was ok with the hat portion but realized I hadn't sewn anything. Feeling a little empty and things not quite done yet, we ran to Joann's with only minutes to spare. SuperMom? Definetly not. Sewing-obsessed? Unfortunately, yes.

My little punkin. A day out with dad at the punkin farm. I'm trying hard to phase out characters such as Dora and Princess, but she can wear the handmade skirts as much as she pleases. I'm vain like that.

I'm pleased to announce that the orange quilt top and back are finished. Also, the Tina Givens quilt top. Just working on that backing. My birthday is coming up and hubby is wanting to upgrade the sewing machine for me. Oh yeah, he's a keeper. Maybe tomorrow at this time I'll bring her home with me.

Quilt Parade

2009-10-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

Fall Quilt Festival time! Well, it's kind of a quilt...

I mean, I worked hard, planned the layout and really stretched myself with that dang red in there! But are rag quilts really QUILTS? Well, this one IS because I like it and am totally loving the colors! I can't tell you how I agonized over the red.

Back of quilt. Love that blue!

Enter Bubbles. This was the puppet commission I had been working on for three weeks. It was cool to try a new thing, experiment, learn some puppet stuff. God has opened so many unexpected doors for me!

Bubbles's daddy wanted to do the facial features - no, it's not a blind rabbit puppet.

I was having serious quilt withdrawls. So I pulled the Manzanita charms off the shelf and got a little crazy. Really my only goal was to get this thing done in as little time as possible just for the sake of:
1.) Sewing and
2.) Playing with fabric and colors again.

Hence the quickie rag quilt. Except I forgot they take forever to clip. Oh well. It's done and I can get back to Bubbles 2.1

It's almost Quilt Market time!

2009-10-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

Quilt Market and Festival in Houton.

No, I'm not going, but I am really excited to see the updates from everyone. And I bet you are too, RIGHT?! Of course you are! This handy-dandy little button will (hopefully) link everyone's updates together. I think there are about 30 at this point. So until the day when I can really attend, this is the next-best thing. And it's such a cute little button, I'll keep it up for probably way too long.

Totally unrelated: just found out my daughter's preschool is closing due to budget cuts. We are all totally bummed and I even wanted to make a quilt for the teacher for Christmas, but it will be a done deal by then. Sorry, just wanted to whine. Some of us mommies were trying to think what we can do. It's partially subsidized by local taxes, but we pay a nominal fee. They won't even consider raising the cost; they're just cutting it altogether. If you have been in a similar situation, I'd love to hear what action you took to save something meaningful to you!

2008

2009 (A tad more confident!)

Finally... October.

2009-10-01T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hello, Autumn! You are my mostest favorite time of the year.

This autumn we will be celebrating:

:One:

:Seven:

:Apples:

Each and every day is so dear to me. I'm learning to invest in people more and more. I'm trying to step outside of my comfort zone, take risks, develop relationships. It can be very hard for me to initiate a conversation or spend that extra time listening to another mom share a story. You know, we're all busy, right? I really think the Lord wants me to slow down and get real.

Isn't that what sipping hot beverages is for? :)

My goal this fall is to have lots of backyard cookouts and invite neighbors over for smores, game nights, or whatever. It's time to reach out while staying in.

Memory quilt is done!

2009-09-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a journey it has been. I am so thrilled to:

1.) Have this finished before 2010!

2.) See the completed work of this quilt come together. Every quilt finish has a great sense of accomplishment, but this one is at the top of the list. It's very special to me.

I ordered the label from Tracey, aka The Dancing Needle on Etsy. The first one had a typo, the second one got lost in the mail, and the third one was juuuuust right. I do highly recommend Tracey's work even through the glitches. She was such a sweetie with sending replacements. Thanks, Tracey!

I had some reservations about including it. It was a surprise for the recipient. I hope a good one. I guess she could get out a seam ripper if need be. Mr Pin Cushion and I talked about if for a while and finally he just asked me what I would want if the roles were reversed. Isn't that how we should make most of our decisions concerning others? What a good man!

The binding (black dress pants) got finished up in Washington DC. We made the trip to visit my big brother for a very special promotion ceremony over the weekend. It was so perfect to be in the car with my family. It was overcast and rainy outside while I was sewing and chatting with my family inside the car. It was seriously a wonderful road trip. I can't express enough how I loved being together and sewing at the same time!

Anyway, the quilt is off to find it's home. I feel like I just sent a child away to college. But I must move on... Bubbles the Bunny awaits.

A new commission to re-create this rabbit for a local ventriloquist. I'm way excited to make this thing, it's a great opportunity. Just got back from the craft store with styrofoam balls, felt, cork board, and polyfil. Honestly, I do feel a tad panicked. But I draw a lot of inspiration from the show Ace of Cakes on Food Network. Every episode seems to involve their creative juices, a mishap, and how they really think themselves out of another pickle. It helps me to feel better that very successful artisans also make mistakes and not everything comes naturally and perfectly every single time.

Updates to come!

The good life

2009-09-22T12:44:00.001-07:00

Mr. Pin Cushion and I are from the country. Like for real. The only county in our state without a highway. I remember when the McDonald's opened. It was the best day of my life as a 10-year old. Civilization winked at us from time to time, but never got too close. I never disliked the country, but was totally digging my jaunts to the city. Fast forward um, a few years and we are living in the city craving for that quiet country life. Although visiting my Italian in-laws has some tension at times, I love, love, love being back home in the country.

My MIL with her neice. After lunch we usually go outside and pick grapes, berries, tomatoes, whatever we can find. The quiet is amazing. It is so perfect.

They have every fruit that is possible to grow and even some that aren't possible. But my father-in-law is the king of making things grow against their will, so it's only a matter of time. Anyhoo, these raspberries were so gorgeous... and delicious! But I was mostly taken with their stunning colors.

Yes, I am very excited to get back to my Tina Givens quilt with these very colors + some lime green .

Check it out!

2009-09-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

Jelly roll giveaway at Missourit Quilt Company!

I recently discovered my love for jelly rolls when doing the Picadilly quilt a few months ago. Now I crave them.

By the way, the Memory Quilt is getting quilted. I am so happy with this one.

And today is the first day of preschool. It's been good but weird. I miss that little monkey.

God and Dog

2009-08-31T12:42:00.000-07:00

I love my Lord, certainly nothing comes close. Of course, I love my hubby and kiddos too. But our dog, Owen, is really a part of the family as well.

This cute little song and video says it really well. All dog-lovers should watch and then cuddle up close to their furry child. Unless you're Italian and already have human furry children. They work too.

Teachers Pet Cardi, Simple Tee and Poppy Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-08-28T17:01:00.000-07:00

Teachers Pet Cardi, Simple Tee and Poppy Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

It is so cute! I hope I win!!

August in review

2009-08-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

Oopsy! There goes August and summer for that matter. I've been working and taking pictures and here are a few highlights of where I've been.

First of all, the memory quilt back is finished! It has actually been added to since this picture, but just border-type thingies.

HOPEFULLY the completed finished totally done picture will be up soon...

I know I'm not breaking any records with my slowness of making this one. The quilt was getting so bulky with all the different fabrics, so I went in search of a walking foot.

Dear Walking Foot Inventor, I love you.

And yay for tomatoes! And peppers! Each year our piddly little garden is a little less piddly. I once read a tip in a gardening magazine in a waiting room or somewhere about putting used coffee grounds on the soil for composting. WOW, best tip ever. Since that seemed to work so well, we just put the rest of our food scraps out there too (you know, the normal stuff like peels and seeds).

Add a little princess charm and voila - more tomatoes than we know what to do with! I always thought that was the mark of a successful gardener - giving away heaps of things while saying, "we have so many, we just couldn't possibly use them all". It translates as "I'm such a remarkable gardener. Did I mention I was generous too?" Sorry, I digress. But hey, we got tomatoes.

And we had a birthday here. Mr. Incredible got a lemon cake on a special plate. He is one super awesome fantastic guy. Really. He works his little brain all day and comes home to his "housefull of honeys". Usually one of us is crying, but he somehow manages to act happy to be here. And he keeps coming home to this estrogen palace, so that's a bonus. It's really something to keep falling in love with the same man after all these years. We've both kind of changed, matured, had two new people enter our lives, and sometimes it's weird to think we knew each so long ago. Ya know, back when we drank cheap beer and slept till noon? Anyway, I never know how to appropriately celebrate the birthday for the love of my life, but we were together with Chinese food and a bottle of wine.

I think he was ok with that.

What to do?

2009-07-30T11:11:00.001-07:00

While the parents were in town, mom and I hit up an estate sale. It was wonderful, but I was crying way too much. Not like sobbing or anything (not at the sale, anyway), but I kept getting way too emotional and had to wipe my eyes a few times as to avoid the raccoon look. When I see old & loved things at these types of sales, I start wondering who these people were/are, what their lives were like, what kind of parents they were, etc. I got this very old Bible which was tied with twine to keep it together.

And then when I got home, I opened it up to find...

1892?! Wow, I was really surprised. Then the tears came... Just thinking of how this Bible may have been used in several generations of souls. Was this a family of Christians, did they use this Bible to teach their children the Good News of Christ? You can see how it is broken into three sections above, the pages are very fragile and the cover is on the verge of completely disintegrating.
Anyway, I don't know what to do. I really am not the person to keep things for investments, increasing value, yadda yadda yadda. (Hoarding fabric for several years for a special project that may or may not reveal itself to me is a whole other story!) Should I get it bound so that it is usable? (Maybe it's way too fragile for that anyway?) Should I just put it away, even though that kind of drives me nuts? Any other ideas? Anything?

fabric hoarding!

2009-07-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

So I feel like a real quilter now! I finally acquired my first Heather Ross. It was not easy... or cheap! :) They are so sweet. Not sure if I can make two quilts, one for each of my girls, or a big one for us all to share. Actually I just hope I can use them. This hoarding thing is beginning to creep in.

Speaking of hoarding...

I'm secretly hoping you have already moved on to another blog so I have less competition...
In the event you are still here, I guess I'll send you rachel's way. This is a killer giveaway. Good luck... I guess....

Quilt top done!

2009-07-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

Yay! The quilt top is done. Sorry for the bad lighting. A very rainy and dark day here, not much natural light. I still have some white shirting left, so there may be some sort of border, but the major part of the top is done. I hope the recipient is liking the progress! Now onto designing a back with the remainder of the garments left. Usually I can whip out a quilt in no time, but I really feel nervous in between these major steps.

Mad Housewife

2009-07-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

My parents were in town this weekend. Usually a tornado of activity, nothing is left untouched. My dad, who never ever drinks, bought this wine for me just because of the label. Hilarious! The back was funny too. The wine was actually very good. It was gone rather quickly. Yay for dads who buy funny wine labels!
He didn't know it, but boy, did I need it. The seam ripper has been very busy. Very.

Seriously?! I have been sewing for over 20 years and I can't put right sides together any more? It was one of those days where I thought I was on a roll, getting all my sashings done. Then when I stepped back to admire my hard work and pat myself on the back.... oh brother...

At least it was sunny out and I could rip seams whilst enjoying a summer day.

Isabella and I made some crayons from the scraps that were in the bottom of the basket. This was actually a great project for us. She was very happy to take off the papers and break them into little bits and fill up the cupcake trays. Bake 'em at 275 for 7-9 minutes and you have some pretty cool new crayons! I didn't have much luck using those flower molds for cupcakes and similar results with crayons - broken petals. Time to put 'em in the garage sale this weekend!

Guess we'll try the mini muffin tins next time.

Poetry

2009-07-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

I just read SouleMama's post. Actually it was Papa's turn today. It was so beautiful. I've been inspired to pull out the journal and get writing. When I was dating hubby many years ago, full of love and goo, I would write poem on top of poem about him, love, people, you know.... And now I'm afraid that I've grown up into a normal grown up. House work, groceries, cleaning, normal adult things that are killing my creativity! I know these things are necessary and I just have to work harder at maintaining balance. I hear a little 3-year old asking me to play with her several times a day to which I usually reply "Just a minute", "As soon as I'm done with this", or "Please wait patiently". One of these days she might not ask me since she's getting rejected so much.

So I continue the daily struggle of priorizing a mama's duties. I'm praying that I can really improve on this. Dinner, dishes, and floors can wait. Little girls who like blueberries and tutus should come in ahead of the Swiffer. One day, Lord willing, my hands are going to be like this:

...and hopefully there will be a few marker stains or beaded bracelets to adorn them.

Layout

2009-07-10T13:20:00.001-07:00

Isn't this just darling? The temperature actually got above 70 a few days ago, so we hit the pool. Well, actually it's a sandbox 90% of the time, but for a few gloriously warm days, we have a pool.

And I also accomplished a layout. Well, a first round anyway. There's a lot for the eye to take in, so I know this will be moved around quite a bit. Actually while the pictures were uploading (my least favorite part about blogging), I rearranged most of the squares. And if the recipient (you know who you are!) or anyone else for that matter has any suggestions, I am certainly open to them.

I think this one is my favorite. There are many favorites, but this one and I bonded very late one night. The center squares are from many pieces of a tie. Three of them were big enough to work with, but then I was left with eleventy million tiny pieces and a whole lotta willpower. The fourth square has at least 12 seams in it. And it only measures 1 1/2 inches. Every quilt has a story and I think this one could have a mini series!

The monkey and the table

2009-07-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

Remember my little sock monkey experience? Well, the baby has been born (Hooray!) and here is her prize for being so darn cute.

And here's the back:

It's flannel and so soft! I was quite nervous about free motion quilting the flannel, but it was great. No problems at all. I decided to include a picture of the baby with her "stats" and satin stitch it to look like she fit in with the other monkeys. Clever, I know!! :) And the patch with ric-rak that you see just folds/flops on top of the picture. That way little cutie-pie can play peek-a-boo with herself.

And after many years, hubby and I finally broke down and bought our first table! (Double hooray!) I shant go into the horrific times of the other ugly table, getting cut and worry about tetanus and all. It was the table his uncle from Sicily made with his bare hands and they all grew up around this table, blah blah blah. Great story, but bad table.

Hellooooo, Norden! Anywho, new table means table runner. Quilters, rejoice! A quick, useful, beautiful project able to be done in a day!

I had a charm pack and fat quarter set purchased long ago just begging to be part of my everyday life. Now I don't have to worry about hoarding this beloved fabric since it greets me every morning. By the way, it is House by Annette Tatum. It's so beautiful and I love it, so of course it's probably discontinued or something tragic.

By the way, I did the binding by machine because I was so excited to get this baby together. But I really know deep down that it's only a matter of days before I'm picking it out and doing it by hand.

My First Quilt

2009-07-06T13:00:00.001-07:00

Well, I just read Camille's post about looking back at our first quilts and thought it was such a great idea! Here is mine:

I took my first quilting class in 2002. I was newly married and had my first job as a recreation therapist in an assisted living facility. I really wanted to get the "little old ladies" there in a quilting group or something, but I had no skills. My mama taught me to sew at eight years old, but I had never done anything like a quilt. So I signed up for the sampler quilt class and a few months later, here it was.

Pretty sure it's not supposed to look like this! That top left rectangle should probably be a square. I have definetly learned to slow down and do each part of the process correctly - measuring, cutting, sewing 1/4", etc. Notice I did not say 'perfectly', just correctly. There's a big difference. Back then I was just doing it to get through each block, be done with it, and get to the next one. I have really learned to slow down and enjoy the long process that it can be.

So like yeah... Most seams aren't matching up on this block because I was hasty in my ways. Don't I sound like a 90-year-old? ;) But seriously, I was pretty much slapping squares together faster than I should have, especially for a newbie.

I believe this was the last block in the class sequence and I must say that it doesn't look too horrible. Those were some tiny squares going on there. I never got around to backing, binding, and quilting it. Actually those key things weren't discussed in my class, so I just kinda folded it up and put it on a shelf. It is now on the ever increasing list of things to do... finish the first quilt.

One of the most obvious things I have learned was fabric selection. The value and color make all the difference. I knew I liked the color blue, and I was supposed to select a certain amount of fabrics, but never took into consideration the scale of the print, the value of the hues, and how they coordinated. I pretty much went to Joann one night and bought the first 7 blue fabrics I saw. Now fabric choices consume my life, but that's another story!

And my latest quilt:

I'm still all about blue, but taking my time and being more thoughtful and purposeful about things as well. And I also made a couple kids to put on the quilts which make them look even better!

Summer quilting

2009-06-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

A wonderful package came my way from Natalie. My first winnings! Woo hoo! And aren't they dandy to boot. A great big thank you, Natalie. I can't wait to use them.

Summer has officially arrived and we intend to live every sunny minute to the fullest!

I had a helper in the flower bed today. She arranged her gloves exactly like Mama's. I really wish these days would never end.

But I guess if you're a real (dork) quilter, you wish for those moments that are *too hot* so you have a good excuse to head inside and sew.

About 25 blocks done on this one now. It continues to be a joy to make and watch what is created at the end of a day. A few more garments need some stabilizer, but after that it will flow much faster.

Hope you are enjoying your summery days as much as we are!

Quilt & Coat

2009-05-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

My sweet, sweet Mama made this coat as a request from me. I saw it on SewMamaSew's website last year and could not get it out of my mind. After I tracked down the elusive Apple Dot fabric and JoAnn had a $1 sale on McCall's patterns, I knew it was time to get to it! She is WAY better at following patterns that I am - I have zero patience for that sort of thing. Maybe when I have really cute grandkids I'll learn to adapt!

And here is another peak at some squares I have finished for the memory quilt. This project gets me all happy inside every time I work on it. Lately that's been in 5-minute intervals, but progress is happening. I bought 5 more yards of interfacing (featherweight this time since they were out of lightweight - didn't seem to make a difference once ironed even though it felt heavier in the store) and it was gobbled up quickly too. My grand total is 8 yards so far with many more left to do. Just keeping track for the Quilt Stats at the end. I like to look back at the journey of the quilt.

A bright sunshiney day

2009-05-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

My favorite local weather man has a new acronym: NACITS. Any guesses?

Not A Cloud In The Sky! A glorious day!!

I took the baby outside while my oldest was napping to pair up some of the shirt fabrics. I finally got the courage to start trimming them. I have most of the knit shirts backed with lightweight fusible interfacing, but will need to get some more. Three yards weren't enough! I totally underestimated how much I would need.

These are just little peaks... I like to keep a lot of it a surprise. But I will say that when the ties are added... wow, things really start to pop and look very interesting.

Speaking of ties, I found a great help in a dear lady who make ties her creative passion. A lot of great info on her blogs about making things exclusively with men's ties. Thanks, Barb!

Off to continue this fun adventure!

A new beginning

2009-05-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get better at working on one project at a time instead of 725 half-projects laying around. So now that the Picadilly quilt is done, I will focus on this project.

A box of clothing worn by a loving husband, father, coach, and friend who passed away from cancer last year. I've had the box for a while now trying to get the design right, but mostly getting the courage to cut into the various shirts and pants without falling apart emotionally. I tend to obsess about each quilt at the beginning anyway, but this is worse. I have been procrastinating terribly. I think I'm afraid of something less than totally knock-your-socks-off perfection. I didn't even know this man, but his wife has become a friend through the magic of the interweb. She is also a sister in the Lord and so I just want to make this memory quilt the best I can.

Hopefully tonight is the night I can officially get started.

I have laid out the clothing by colors - blues, blacks, a little red plaid and yellow stripe - hoping that would speak to me in terms of design. We decided the square in a square like AmandaJean's quilt. Which is great because that is totally my style too.

I have the interfacing ready. That way I can start with the sleeves and smaller parts of the shirts, fuse the interfacing, and work to the larger areas of the clothing as I gain momentum.

It's a very special project that will be more enjoyable once I get over this initial hurdle of paralyzing fear!

Picadilly Quilt

2009-05-12T17:04:00.001-07:00

YAY! I love this one! Whoever invented the jellyroll is a genius. This was made with one jellyroll and a yard each of the blue and brown damask. The front came together very quickly, but the back took longer than I expected. The stacked coin thing was fine, actually I'm not sure what went on, but it took a very long time. And then the sewing machine feud.... But we made up. I won the battle, the quilt is done, and we're best friends again.

I'm mostly in love with that little ball of cuteness sitting on top. Aren't those rolls the best? I must be part cannibal, I really do try to feast on her daily.

At my house, every day is mother's day

2009-05-10T18:10:00.000-07:00

At My Place, Every Day Is Mother's Day
by Scott Simon
Weekend Edition Saturday, May 9, 2009 ·

My wife doesn't work. She's a full-time mother. She luxuriates in bed until 6:30 a.m., when our 2-year-old chants, "Mama, Mama!" like some ancient war call, and she trudges into the kitchen with our baby on one shoulder to use her free hand to heat milk.
I stay in my office, writing, procrastinating and checking baseball scores until I need another cup of coffee.
My wife tries to go to the bathroom. Our 2-year-old clings to her knees. Using a bathroom with a 2-year-old on your lap should be a rodeo event.
Our 6-year-old gets up and chirps, "Mama! Mama!" My wife holds our 2-year-old in one arm, our 6-year-old with the other, and heats up more milk with her third hand.
I come into the kitchen for more coffee.
She dresses our daughters. It's like trying to put tuxedo shirts on two squiggling ferrets. My wife walks our daughters 10 blocks to kindergarten, but it takes half an hour because our girls won't step on cracks, stop to look in every window and stomp in every puddle. She has to pull them along like sacks of nails.
When she gets back to our apartment, my wife can finally relax. She does laundry; pays bills; stays on hold with the credit card, Internet and phone companies for 45 minutes because the bill is wrong, while our 2-year-old swings from her neck like a chimp; resets the wireless service; changes diapers and light bulbs; buys food; picks up toys; cleans the fish bowl and hermit crab habitat; organizes closets; cleans what our cat coughs up; schleps to the storage locker; tries to take a shower but can't because our 2-year-old can't find her stuffed dog; picks up our 6-year-old from school and takes her to ballet; makes three meals and innumerable snacks; calls our mothers and sends them photos of their grandchildren; and wipes up milk, water and diaper spills the way Red Adair put out oil fires.
I help by calling my wife a couple of times a day to tell her how busy I am and ask, "Um, darling, can you find my red socks?"
She has four minutes a day to herself and eats only Cheerios that fall on the floor. She works 15 hours a day with no breaks or mandated meals, 365 days a year with no real vacations. Our daughters feel free to cough up and sneeze things into her hands. If Samuel Gompers heard about my wife's working conditions, he'd say, "Organize and fight!"
Instead, she knows that in these times it's a gift to be able to be a full-time mother. You know: just to be home with the kids.

Happy Mother's Day to ME!

2009-05-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

I just have to say that I LOVE being a mother. I always thought I would have four boys. Why? No idea. Do I know anyone with four boys? Yes, but just met them recently. Why on earth would I ever assume such a funny thing? I don't have a clue. But I do know that God must be cracking up because so far I have two GIRLS! I won't lie... I totally panicked when I found out my first was a girl. Because my own relationship with my mother is not super great and I am not a very girly-girl, I didn't think there would be any way I could deal with a daughter/girl of my own.

Enter my first born.

I thought my heart would burst open immediately from being too small to hold all my happiness in. I'll never forget the overwhelming love that filled me up when that sweet little baby was placed on my chest. I was in disbelief that I actually had a baby, a daughter, a little person to care for. It was a new love that I had never known before. I still feel those crazy love jabs when I watch her get tired in the car seat, she slips her little hand in mine at the grocery store, or puts her hand on my face as a beautiful little smile graces hers.

And then, about two years later, we heard a familiar sentence...

Another girl!

I'm so glad that God is in charge. He picked these amazing little baby girls just for me and my hubby. We are (VERY) far from a perfect family, but they fit perfectly to us. I cannot imagine life without them. Sisters, daughters, a mother of two girls. A miracle indeed!

Happy Mother's Day to all. Everyone has a mother, some are about to be mothers for the first time, some have been mothers for decades.

I just love being the mommy to these two little "goyles" as my oldest says. We are richly blessed! Happy mother's day to everyone!

basted!

2009-04-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm totally annoyed with this once-favorite quilt.
I'm not sure if it's the thread, the tension on my machine, or ME in general, but the quilting situation is not working right now. I was supposed to have this thing D-U-N by now and it's just not happening. ARGG!

Oh well. At least I got my very special tutu order out the door. I was THRILLED to have a custom order of 4 tutus for flowers girls in a May wedding. Nevermind the fact that I was totally winging it.
I must say she looks absolutely adorable in it, but too bad... it's in NY now with it's 3 other tutu friends.

And I finished up a little colored pencil holder for my friend's daughter who is just a sweety in general.

ETA: I should give credit to Pink Chalk Studios for the pencil roll pattern seen in Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts.

I'm also a little annoyed with the smudge on my cameral lens. Gotta figure out how to handle that one without making it worse... which is usually the way it ends up with me!

But most importantly right now, I must figure out this tension/thread/me issue. Tomorrow...

Good night.

Monkeys, Dora, and Penguins...

2009-04-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

...Oh my!
Are there any awards for worst blogger ever? I realize bloggers are supposed to be a little more regular than once a month, but this is all I got right now! Here are a few of the things I've been doing:

What fun it was to make my first sock monkey! Maybe I've been watching too much Celebrity Apprentice, but I think she looks like Joan Rivers a little. This sweet little monkey girl went to my best girlfriend for her baby shower. They have been referring to the young fetus as Monkey, as the baby's hair was visible on the ultrasound. Seriously. She sits daintily atop a 4-tier diaper cake. Isabella was so sad to see Miss Monkey go, but maybe I'll make another one someday... Or maybe not. I have a little monkey in the background keeping me busy lately!

Shortly after the baby shower was my oldest's 3rd birthday. Part of me can't believe she's only three. I can barely remember life without her. I feel like she's always been a part of my life. She is such a tender heart, a kind old soul. She loves hugging (sometimes to the point of tackling), dancing, singing, and Dora. I'm not a huge fan of my daughter being totally obsessed with characters, but I guess it could be worse. That's the world we live in, so I just have to make sure it stays in check. Thankfully she is all about books, so at least that minimizes the impact of the situation. I decided to make her a birthday cake each year and what a fun tradition it has turned into! Everyone at the party now waits to see what we came up with each year.

As if there were any doubt. Previous years' cakes were Thomas the Tank Engine and a doggy. She's still a big fan of both, so maybe there will be repeats in the future! We had her birthday party at the zoo since our little house can't accomodate our families. It was so great to get everyone together and celebrate our "togetherness" since we are all so scattered these days.

And now I'm quite excited to be almost done with a lovely brown and blue quilt. Stay tuned! Hopefully it won't take a month to post again, but you never know with all these animals running around!

What I've been up to

2009-03-09T08:40:00.001-07:00

A little memory quilt for Grandma's 92nd birthday:

A sorting game for my almost-3-year-old (I can't remember where I saw this, Make and Takes maybe?):

And spending some quality time with a squishly little munchkin:

Of course, there have been other sewing projects going on, but I will try to do a post just for those. I've also been quite determined to use my crock-pot more often in an effort to up the family time and ...ahem... sewing time. Also, I'm told that it saves money, so I'm all for that!

What have you been up to?

Yay for Valentine's Day!

2009-02-12T12:22:00.000-08:00

My 2-year old had her first Valentine's Party at preschool this week. It was sweet to see her try to comprehend what in the world all this heart stuff was for. I, of course, made a bigger deal than I should have and whipped up a little bag for her to put her valentines in. It was fun to take a break from the orange quilt to make something for my girly. By the way, the Owl valentines came from a link from Skip to my Lou. Isabella colored them up and I taped a sucker to back. I love the colors of the suckers too!

Still working on the layout of the orange quilt. It will be a thank you gift to my dear Aunt Sue who has baby-sat for us a gazillion hours for free, usually appearing quite happy to do so. She was so vital to us while my husband and I were in the hospital delivering baby girl #2.

I'm certainly up for suggestions on block placement!

Have a great valentine's weekend. Be sure to give someone a hug.

XOXOXO

I really like this pink flowery girly stuff

2009-01-26T18:01:00.000-08:00

Seriously, this Quilt Gate set of fat quarters is so beautiful, I'm head over heels in love. I have a history of making ugly quilts because I hoard all my favorite fabric and can't stand the thought of cutting into it or worse... what if I can't find it in the future to use it again??? This is a serious issue.
I have heaps and heaps of Amy Butler and Heather Bailey and other amazing designers' fabric but it is so darn hard to USE IT!

Anyway, these WILL be used for my daughter's twin size quilt. I think I'm ok using them since I can still see them everyday. They won't be going far. (She better not take the crayons or markers to it one day or I will lose it.) I'm just doing a million patchwork squares and when I have enough, I'm going to sew them all together and go from there.

Since she was my first daughter, I went all out and painted the room pink and bought every single floral thing I could find while I was pregnant. Now she is almost 3 years old and I am still prettying up her room in a shabby chic design. I'm the most non-pink person EVAH, but when I found out it was a girl - watch out! Something (estrogen?) came out in huge quantities and now look what makes me all gooey... pink roses! Funny thing, those baby girls!
Here's the pile of patchwork I've been slowly working on here and there between other projects:

I'm thinking I'm about half-way there? I'm just guessing. I've used mostly scraps from other projects but can't resist when I see perfect pieces of shabby chic fabric. I've never made a twin-size quilt before, so I'm not sure exactly how much fabric this will involve. It sure is fun having a baby girl to get all girly about!