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 :)

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!

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!!!

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?

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!

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 :)

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 :)

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 :)

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'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.

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!

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.......