Friday, March 30, 2012

It's Sandwich Time!

My mom gave me a copy of her flight itinerary yesterday
and I had the immediate sinking feeling in my stomach
when I realized that I only have 17 days to get this quilt done!
I've asked her to take it with her to Germany
and give it to her sister for me.

What was I thinking?????


So now I've got this little quilt sandwiched
and ready to go :)
Good thing it's only a lap quilt! 
I also finished up the pajama shirts
for my 4 grandsons.
They are already wearing the pants.

Anyone else dislike making button holes
or is it just me?

Oh well...another project done :)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Finally....A Finish!!!

I finished my very first machine quilted baby quilt!

Take a good look,
because I'll NEVER do this again!

I was sweating and wrestling with my machine.
I have SO much respect for all of you
who machine quilt, especially the larger quilts!
I love the look, now that it's done,
but I'd rather have a root canal than do this again.
This little quilt is 36" by 36" and was made
using a pattern called Kylee's Kite by Quilt in a Day.
It took me longer than a day to make this
unless you count an actual 24 hours of sewing
and then I guess you could call it "a day".
For the front I used a charm pack of  "Lovely" by Moda
along with some pale yellow floral from my stash
and Kona Snow for the background.
I used a salmon gingham from Lakehouse for the binding.
The backing is butter yellow cotton sateen,
oh so soft and yummy with that wonderful sheen!!!
I used the scraps to make the Chevron border on the backside.

The quilt top was definitely FTS (fun to sew)
and I will make more of these
but I'll do the quilting by hand in the future :)

I'm listing this in my shop today.
Wish me luck!




Saturday, March 24, 2012

A Very Happy Saturday!

Last night turned out to be
 a very productive sewing night for me!
I was able to assemble all the kite blocks
for a little quilt I'm working on.
Maybe I'll get a chance to complete the quilt top
this coming week and add it to my ever growing
collection of unfinished projects :)
I also found what I think is the perfect red fabric
for my bedroom quilt.
It has both the shades of red I need and I love
the small floral print! 

And then today my handsome hubby and I
took a small road trip to Carlsbad.
We had a picnic lunch
and then went to some of our favorite
antique stores and even found a new one!
How stinkin cute are these Russian nesting dolls?
Can you believe the amount of hand painting that
someone did on these little beauties?
I mean the detail in the eyes is insane!
Look at that teenie tiny one!
Can you believe that I only paid $2.95 for this set?
I know right?

And then my hubby found these Delft hand painted
salt & pepper shakers in the shape of the Dutch row houses?
I love Delft, but not the traditional plates with windmills.
I collect unique pieces that speak to me
and these were screaming my name!!!

All in all, a terrific weekend so far!
Hope yours in wonderful too!!!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Why don't she write?

I know I've mentioned it before,
but my hubby is a movie lover.
Especially westerns.
And I've also mentioned that in our family
we use lines from movies in our everyday conversations,
(probably too often :)
In the movie "Dances with Wolves"
there is a scene where they come across people
who were killed by Indians
and the guy says to Kevin Costner,
"Someone back home is wonderin'
Why don't he write?"
That's the line that kept
running through my head  this week
because I haven't had a chance to post here on my blog.
It's been a busy week for sure
and I haven't even touched my sewing machine!
I did manage to lay out my layer cake of
"Shades of Blue" by Moda.
I bought this layer cake, a jelly roll, a charm pack
and some yardage when I stumbled across this fabric
some months back.
It's an older collection and hard to find
but perfect for my bedroom!
We have a black wrought iron bed frame
and I can already imagine this becoming a quilt!
I'm planning to include more reds (shocker I know)
to round it out.
But for now the hard part is deciding on a pattern. 
And now for the reason I haven't been posting this week.
Actually.... 6  wonderful reasons: 
Elijah :)

Caleb :)

Gabriel :)

Sofie :)

David :)

and Evie :)
What could be better than this?

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Friday Night Sew In #11 - Pajama Jam

Last night was the 11th time I've taken part in the
Friday Night Sew In :)
It's always fun to know that all over the country
fellow crafters are all sewing together :)
A few weeks back Joann's had all their
flannel on sale for $1.99 yd instead of $6.99 yd.
That means I can make a pair of pajamas for only $3.98!!!
Well sign me up!!!
I have 4 grandsons
who are all in need of new jammies...
or as the youngest calls them "shammies".

I managed to finish 3 pairs of pants and 2 shirts.
I have 1 pair of pants to finish and 2 more shirts
and then all the buttons and button holes.
I flipped the shirt facings to the outside
and used co-ordinating piping to add a bit of fun :)

Hope you all had a lovely Friday night!

Friday, March 16, 2012

A Fabric Fast in my Future?

Yesterday I spent the better part of the day
organizing my sewing room......again :)
Above are my fat quarters, half yards,
charm packs, and in the zipper bags
I have fabric  bundles for quilts that are waiting to be born :)
This is my fabric stash of "1 yard and up" fabrics
wrapped around comic book boards.
It makes me happy to look at it :)
The messy fabrics at the bottom are
home decor weight fabrics that I use
for tote bags and pillows and such.
Seeing all this makes me realize that I have
more than enough fabric to last me a while.
I keep seeing new collections
 that I instantly fall in love with
so in order to make room for new fabrics,
 I absolutely have to use up some
of my stash fabrics.....pronto!
So my plan is to go on a fabric fast
and not buy any new fabrics
until I make a dent in what I already have.

And with that in mind,
I used a few yards from my stash
and made these 2 new grocery bags.
The one with the roosters and red and cream striped canvas
is definitely for me
and I made the green canvas one
just because it's fun!
I used my favorite Keyka Lou pattern.
It's so FTS! (fun to sew).
I never get tired of making these.
You can make one in under an hour 
and I always get so many complements
at the grocery store :)



Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Home :)


I'm almost finished with my Tiny Houses quilt :)
I need to decide whether to bind it in red or yellow.
It's going to hang against a yellow wall
so I'm leaning toward red for the binding right now.


You know I had to find a way
 to incorporate some giant red rick rack
into this quilt.
Large rick rack is my latest obsession!!!
I would have been completely finished
with the quilt top last night but I ran out of
red floss to blanket stitch the word "family".


When I started the Tiny House quilt along
I wasn't really sure how my quilt would evolve,
but I'm happy with the outcome and I can't wait
to do the hand quilting and get this up on the wall
in my living room.
It's just a happy reminder of all the people
I love most in this world :)

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Garden Steps Block #1...done!

Last night I finished the embroidery
on block #1 of the Garden Steps Quilt Along :)
I'm sooooo loving this!
It's a good thing that Clara and Jenny
over at Clover & Violet
are making me wait a month for each
embroidery pattern,
because I'd probably spend all my time
on the handwork of this quilt and get nothing else done :)


I used backstitching to outline the design.
Then I used french knots in 2 colors for the topiary plants.
I used a satin stitch for the butterflies
and lazy daisy stitch for the flowers on the pots.
I used a french knot as the center of each little flower.


OK....time to get busy on my tiny houses quilt!

I mean.....laundry and housework :)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

In stitches :)

I don't know about you,
but there are days that I just don't feel like sewing
on my machine.

*gasp*

I know...right?

Sometimes I just love the simplicity of
creating with a needle and thread.
Today I'm doing the hand work on another
component of my tiny houses quilt.


I also wanted to show my "chickens and quilts" cross stitch
that I finished last night.
Now I can add it to my ever growing
box of completed stitcheries
that are just waiting to be framed.
Why is it so stinkin expensive to have something framed?
Sheesh!
My friend Amy gave me the phone number
of her framer and I'll be contacting her soon.


I also finished this fun scissor case kit that I received
for my birthday :)
I just love love love it!!!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Wednesday's Work in Progress

I finished adding all the birthdays to my blocks
and added some sashing.
Now I have to run out to M & L for some more
Kona Snow to add the next elements to my quiltie.
I need to get some backing fabric too.
I'll be honest....
ANY excuse to go to M & L is a good excuse :)
.
I think I'm going to hang this one on the wall
in the living room when it's finished.

Monday, March 5, 2012

12 Tiny houses all in a row :)

I spent part of Saturday sashing my tiny houses
in what I like to call "phase 2" of my
Tiny Houses From Scraps quilt along.
Clearly I won't be making 365 tiny houses.
I knew from the beginning that I didn't have
 the attention span to make one house per day.
But I have a fun quilt design in my head for these little houses
and we'll see if it comes out in real life
as cute as I'm hoping it will.
I have to say that I really enjoyed making the houses
all by hand, but I'll be using my machine to
assemble the quilt top.
I back stitched the months of the year
onto each block and there will be a bit more
embroidery still to come.

I have so many projects to finish up.
Way too many quilt tops just screaming
to be sandwiched and quilted.
That's my goal for March.
We'll see how that works out...ha!

Friday, March 2, 2012

And now I wait........

A few days ago I mentioned that I was taking part
in the Garden Steps Stitch & Quilt Along.
The cutting and assembly instructions are now up
over at Clover & Violet's blog.
Of course I couldn't wait to get started.
I pulled reds, blues and yellows
from my stash to match my decor.
This quilt is going to be extra special to me
because a few of these fat quarters were purchased
at the Quilt Festival last year with my
fantastic blogging/sewing buddies!
So here are my 12 blocks.
All sewn and just waiting for the embroidery patterns
so that I can begin stitching!
The hardest part now is the waiting.......

I'm a such a horrible "waiter".

My husband used to hide my Christmas gifts
at his mother's house until we moved too far
away from her for that to be convenient.
Then he started buying his own wrapping paper
and bows and he would make sure the tape was
on there good so that if I tried to open them
carefully, I'd rip the paper and he'd know
and I wouldn't have the same paper to re-wrap it.

Yes....horrible I know......

So in the mean time,
I'll just admire the happy fabric
and count down the days
 until the first embroidery pattern is available.......


I think this one is my favorite block.


Or maybe this one......


I have to say I like this one too.......