Simple Things Quilt Along - quilt tops complete

I finished the quilt tops for the Simple Things Quilt Along! This small one is going to Carol (Cornfield Quilter) in trade for the small one that she made... :o) I finished it yesterday, before the trio and I went to see the last Harry Potter movie! :o) 

And today, I finished up the large sized one -- this one is for me... :o) I really enjoyed this quilt along, and can see making this design again! I really like the fun zig zag border, too! :o)

P.S. Come back tomorrow, I'm going to have a give away of the scraps from this quilt -- it's the hard-to-find "Rose Parade" fabrics, by Moda! :o)

hexagon give-away winner and sneak peek... :o)

We have a winner! Comment #6 from Deborah in Atlanta! Please email me and I will get the hexagons and some coordinating FQs in the mail to you! Hope you can put them to good use!



And here is a sneak peek.... :o) This is for a DEAR friend that is having a birthday in June... :o) After she receives her gift, I'll post a "real" picture... :o)
Lots of other sewing going on, but it's all been for the shop, so not much interesting to show... :o)

Weekend Projects...

This weekend was spent working on various projects... :o) First off, I finished up Sara Bear. She is for my mom for Christmas. I had her made, I just needed to "age" her and add her ribbon and flower... (Kit from The Old Pincushion Etsy shop.)
And check out this BEAUTIFUL hang tag that my friend Laurie, from Indulge Your Shelf, made to go with Sara.... Here is the front:

And here is the back:

Thank you again, Laurie! :o)

And last but not least... 10 Christmas Flannel fat quarters + backing = YUMMY!

I had some Christmas flannel FQs that I had gotten from The Nauvoo Quilt Company Etsy shop this past summer, that I didn't know what I wanted to do with... So I decided to cut the FQs into 3" squares and see how many 9-patch blocks it would make. Turns out it'll make more than 36 blocks, which is how many I used to make this little snuggly throw. A piece of flannel for the back, and there ya go! :o)

Christmas gifts...

This week, I should be receiving fabric from a customer that wants a x-large throw made to give as a Christmas gift... (Yes, short notice!) So I have been trying to work on some of my own gifts to give, to get them out of the way... :o)

I made these two little wool/felt wallhangings. They measure about 5" x 6", with a small cinnamon stick for a rod. :o) Beads that I had on hand made the "ornaments" with a jingle bell for a tree topper... :o) My own little design! :o)

This is Sara bear! She is for my mom for Christmas. She still needs to be aged with some stain, plus some ribbon or flowers added. Laurie at Indulge Your Shelf is going to make me a special hang-tag for Sara. (By the way, be sure to visit Laurie HERE - she is having an awesome give-away!) This bear stands about 8.5" tall. Sara was made from a kit from The Old Pincushion Etsy shop.

And last but not least, just a peek... This is going to a dear friend, but she reads this blog, so I can't have her seeing the whole thing, it has a long journey across the ocean, so I need to get it mailed this week!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Ours was peaceful... :o) This week won't be as peaceful: Jim has his follow-up appointment at the pulmonary specialist Wednesday, and the local Christmas parade is Wednesday night, and David broke his glasses so I need to get him an appointment... And, and, and... :o) Have a great week!

gifts

Yesterday was a great day! First off, I am in a Friendship yahoo group, where we have a birthday FQ exchange... So I got all these lovely FQs from the gals in the group! I will be able to use alot of these fabrics in my pink Dear Jane quilt... :o)

The yo-yo puppy and fabric underneath it, came from my dear friend Shirley! Isn't it cute! And she's PINK! The "Stamp Basket" stamps are my gift from Jim... :o) The 3 Schnibbles patterns are from the trio and Jimmy... And the pink 1/2 yard of fabric, Lizzie picked out for me - she had her own $... :o)

Jim also ordered 2 quilting books from Amazon.com, but we chose the slow shipping to save a little, and they haven't gotten here yet! Ha! They should be here tomorrow! :o)

The only down side to the day was that we usually go to the Nascar Sprint Cup race in Brooklyn, MI in August, for our wedding anniversary... We have went 4 years in a row and have great seats, right before the start/finish line, just 6 rows up! But Jim has been sick all week (he has now been to the Doctor twice) - he has asthma, etc., and so we had to decide not to go to the race this weekend. This would have been only the 2nd time in 3-1/2 years that I would have been away from Jimmy, besides going out running errands... We could really use the alone time (well, you know, with thousands of other Nascar fans! HA!) Disappointing, but what can you do?!

don't forget about the Happy Day give-away!

Don't forget to sign up for my Happy Day give-away, HERE. The drawing is tomorrow morning!

Got some fun mail this week -- not for me, but for my older son, David! Laurie's son, Ben, went to the 2010 National Scout Jamboree over the last few weeks, and Laurie got this patch for David, since he wasn't able to go. David thought it was SO cool! Thank you, Laurie, it was really, really nice of you to think of him! He is excited to show it to the other boys in our Troop at Monday's meeting!


I finished hand-quilting my July Schnibble, Joy Luck, and now have it hanging over my desk... :o) I really love the colors!

And here is my progress on the hexagons... These are the little 1/2" hexagons. Going to be a quilt center... :o)

Here's what I *really* want for my birthday -- I mean, come on, it even comes out ON my birthday! That must mean something, right?! Well, I know I won't be getting it, but a gal can dream... :o)

See you all tomorrow morning, when I announce the winner of my Happy Day drawing! :o)

oh geez!

Sometimes, I wonder how I get myself into these things... :o) For the past three years, my sister has been the chairperson for our church's Father/Daughter Royal Purity Ball. It is a wonderful event, that my daughters have enjoyed with Jim each year. My sister, Laura, does a great job organizing it. Each year, I have volunteered my sewing services, to make something that would go into the gift bag that each girl gets at the end of the night. The first year, it was sachets, last year was fabric baskets. This week, my workspace is looking like this:

What am I making? Mirror pouches! And you might say, why does it look like I have so much fabric and batting squares on my board?!?!? Because I am making ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE mirror pouches!

They are really lovely, and go perfectly with this years theme, which is that you (as a young girl trying to live purely) are a beautiful girl on the outside as well as the inside!

Here is the pouch. They are made entirely on the embroidery machine.

This is the mirror part. This one doesn't have the mirror in it yet (duh!) but I wanted to test stitch one, to see how they are put together... :o) The outside satin stitch on these will coordinate with the text and satin stitch on the pouch. Oh, and those piles of fabric and batting on my board -- DON'T include the fabrics and batting for the mirrors! HA!

By the way, each pouch takes 34 minutes to stitch out. 34 minutes X 125 pouches = 4,250 minutes! That's almost 71 hours! :o) And that doesn't include the mirrors! Ha! Good thing I have six weeks to get these made!

So sometimes, I wonder how I get myself into these things... :o) But I know I will feel good about it, when they are done! All 125 of them! :o)

A jelly roll....

I participated last month in the Schnibbles Parade over at Pink Pincushion -- that was my first month of making the *right Schnibble* in the right month, so I was surprised when I won a prize! But not just any prize, a prize from Carrie! Yep, the Carrie of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co., the creator of the Schnibbles designs! My prize was a yummy *Old Primrose Inn* jelly roll, just my kind of fabrics! :o)


But when I got the box, I knew it was way too big for just a jelly roll! :o) Oh my, she included so many nice goodies! (She did not want the jelly roll to be lonely!) Not only did she send the *Old Primrose Inn* jelly roll, but TWO *Collection For A Cause - Legacy* jelly rolls that go with the *Emma's Legacy* pattern! And three *The Water's Edge* charm packs! (Those will be saved for a future Schnibble project!) And a few Schnibble patterns, and Best Press starch! I haven't tried that, so that will be fun to try out! :o)


Two of the Schnibbles patterns I already had, so check back later this week, because I will be doing a drawing for those patterns, to two separate winners! I want to share the joy... :o)))

Thank you so much, Carrie! I have enjoyed your patterns and certainly love all my gifts! Now to work on this month's Schibble! :o))) Oh, and did you know she has a new book coming out?! *Schnibbles Times Two* -- on my want list... :o)

Lucky Ducks and some gifts...

I finished up my Quilts For Kids quilt this week -- I was sort of putting off the quilting, because I am not comfortable with machine quilting, but I decided it would be loved whether the lines are straight or not, right? :o) So off I went, I just did a very simple diagonal stitching, and then followed the borders around. (I used cheap masking tape to mark the lines, it was good enough to stick while I stitched, but came off easy with no residue left, when I was done!) You are supposed to wash it before you send it back, and once I did that, it crinkled just enough that I don't think anyone will really see where my lines went off! :o) I am really excited to have this one done and will definitely be doing more of them! :o)
I received my Easter Basket Swap this week from Cindy, from a YahooGroup that I am part of... She sent such cute stuff! I have the socks on today, and they make me smile! :o) Jim took the Peeps and jellybeans... :o) And I will probably have to share the chocolates too... :o) Thanks, Cindy! This swap was really fun! :o)

And last but not least, I received this wonderful hand-made Thank You card from Laurie, for the Nostalgia Scruffy quilt I sent her... I have never received a hand-made card like this, and I think it is a treasure in itself!! The bird on the card reminds me of the birds on the fabrics I used in her quilt... :o)

Hope you all had a good week... The trio are off school this coming week, for Spring Break, so I probably won't be getting much done... :o) I know Jimmy will sure be happy to have them home - he misses them so much when they go off to school!

friendship

I met Beatrice of A Needle in A Haystack thru a *Friends* swap last summer, and we have emailed and exchanged little gifts ever since. Yesterday, I received a Spring package from her! Oh my! I am so lucky! Several of these things are items she has shown on her blog, that I commented on that I really loved! The Bunny in the Snow, and the Easter stitchery are both pillow covers. (I need to get some pillow forms!) An adorable fabric basket, with chocolates! And two little pincushions that she made, scented with the lavender from her own garden!


AND! She also included the *Madeline* Schnibbles quilt that she made in January! This little quilt is just my style! I already have it hung on my little quilt rack above my sewing machine. This is my favorite spot, as the shelves hold some of my most favorite treasures! (Our cowboy wedding cake topper, and some of my Angels) The quilt is perfect there!

Thank you so much, Beatrice! You are so sweet, sending me all these things that I love! :o)

National Quilting Day!

I decided since it was National Quilting Day, today would be the perfect day to put together the little quilt top for my Quilts For Kids quilt... It is one of those *Downy: Touch of Comfort* quilts. You request a kit from them (for free!) and the only thing you need to provide is the batting, machine quilting, and love in every stitch... :o) And then you send it back and it goes to comfort a child in need... What can be better than that? I have been very blessed with four happy, healthy children, and have decided this is one small way that I can pass along a little happiness... :o)
Check out Quilts for Kids -- I promise, it is worth the time... :o)

Why do you quilt?

Why do you quilt? That is something that I don't actually sit down and think about, after all these years. It is just what I *DO*. I am a quilter. I am a crafter. My mom used to crochet and knit, and I remember as a teen, helping her cut out her first couple of quilts, with good ol' cardboard templates. It was what Mom did. And then, it became what I did. I was the only girl in Home Ec class that actually already knew how to sew. I cross-stitched, I made dolls, and then I started to make quilts. Years have past, since my first quilt.

Fast forward to Christmas 2009. Sometimes, we get so caught up in our own lives, we forget to give. At Christmas time, I received an AMAZING gift from Laurie, from Indulge Your Shelf, this Christmas wreath made with vintage ornaments. That was what started me thinking, about giving. And started me thinking, about why I make quilts.

I make quilts to give comfort. To show love. To bring joy. Not for thanks. Not for *oh, that's beautiful* comments. I make quilts to give a part of me. To show love. To be remembered by.

So that brings me back to Laurie. Her kindness had touched me in ways that I can't even put into words. So when I saw this fabric line called *Nostalgia*, I knew I had to create something for her... She likes shabby chic (at least that is what I call it), so I made her this *Scruffily* quilt, using the *Nostalgia* fabric line.
This quilt is to show Laurie that I care. To make her smile. To make her feel special. That is why I quilt. You can read about Laurie's reaction, in her post: A Quilt of Friendship.

Oranges and Easter Basket Swap

Oranges, anyone?! Ok, not real oranges, but the orange-iest fabrics I have ever worked with! Oh my! Remember, I am making birthday quilts for my trio's 13th birthdays later this year? These oranges are for Elizabeth's quilt. She is ALL about the color orange. (Carol, I think you may need sunglasses when you quilt this one! HA!) Definitely not my color choice, but I know Elizabeth will like it, so that's what matters... :o)

I also wanted to show what I sent in an Easter Basket Swap that I participated in. It was sent to Pat at Pat's Patter. I made a Spring-y Easter Basket pincushion, some crocheted dishclothes, a fabric transfer block, some birdhouse buttons, beads, and a sticker sheet... It was nice to *think Spring* with this swap!

I am going to work on Elizabeth's quilt blocks a bit more today, and then hope to get another DJ block or two done tonite! :o) Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

busy, busy... :o)

Our family has been passing around cold/flu symptoms, but I have still been busy, busy... :o) My mom asked me how I was doing yesterday, and I said "Oh, the cold/flu meds make it bearable" And she says "Moms never get a day off", and I said you are absolutely right! Since I finished Sharon's quilt on Sunday, I have stitched a total of 10 badges on 2 different Scout shirts, hemmed a pair of jeans, made 2 Dresden plate centerpieces, stitched 7 little 25" tabletoppers (using 4" squares/random pattern), stitched a large machine embroidery design that I have been anxious to try... Hhhhmmm... No wonder I am tired!

Anyways, I am happy that I am getting some things done that I had been putting off because of all that hand-quilting on Sharon's quilt. Here are my Contrary Wife blocks, for a Sarah's Sampler swap that I am participating in. I have to laugh because I chose Contrary Wife -- I bet my ex-husband would think that was me! Dictionary.com says Contrary means: opposite in nature. But I prefer their fifth definition: stubbornly opposed or willful. I don't think being willful is a bad thing! :o)


Here are what the two Dresden Plate centerpieces looked like, that I made earlier this week. I love how all the florals play off each other - makes me hope for Spring! :o)

And here is the machine-embroidery design that I stitched out today. I am so thrilled with this design! It has 25 color changes, and a little more than 66,000 stitches! I have been without an embroidery machine for awhile, and am glad to be back up and running... This might be made into a pillow for a special friend... Too early for Christmas, but I don't think she would mind! :o)

Thanks so much for visiting! It is time to clean up my workspace and figure out what to work on next... :o) Hope you are having a good week!

Happy Day!

Oh Happy Day! I am so glad to say that Sharon's Beachfront Cottage quilt is done! Here it is, on my bed. Our bed is queen size, so that gives you an idea of how large it is! It finished to approximately 93" x 105"! You can see the hand-quilting in each block, in this post.

This is the best photo I could get of the hand-quilting in the borders, it is a continuous wave design.

This quilt was a labor of love. I have known Sharon for about 6 years or so, and have made many quilts for her, that she has given to family and friends as gifts. So this is the first quilt of mine that she is keeping for herself! She bought the kit and paid me to put it together, but I told her as my gift to her, I wanted to hand-quilt it, not tie it, as she had requested. She does not know it is completed yet! I am sending it off to her today, so she will be surprised to receive it... :o)
Thanks for visiting!

Valentine Roses

I was a lucky gal on Valentine's Day -- dear hubby sent me 12 roses! They are beautiful and smell SO good! Jim is such a sweetheart! (Sshhh! Don't tell him I said that!)
Been busy around the house lately - we got a new 42" TV! Jim has been wanting one for a few years, and the time had come... :o) He is SO happy! But, getting a new TV entailed rearranging the living room - I am STILL chasing dust bunnies! (Two cats and hard wood floors are not a good mix!) And I am not good with change, so all this re-arranging makes me feel out-of-sorts! HA! But we think we have it the way we want it, he just needs to finish the custom cabinet he is making for the TV stand... :o)

Here is a pic that Jim took the other morning, the frost/snow on the trees was just lovely! Well, you know, as long as you don't have to go out in it! :o)

I have all the blocks quilted on that Beachfront Cottage quilt, and gave myself a few days break, so my fingers wouldn't hurt so much... Hopefully I will start on the border quilting in the next day or two... :o) Thanks for visiting!

the slow boat from... South America :o)

Back in early December, I entered a giveaway drawing over at Peek A Boo! and I was lucky enough to win a hand-made Tilda pouch from Sandy! Her package was mailed December 7th, but seemed to take the slow boat from South America to North America -- but it made it here today! Yeah! I told her it did not matter when it arrived, I love red and will use the pouch year-round! It is lovely, Sandy! Thank you so much, and thank you for the extra goodies included! :o)

Chopper

I made this bear for Jim for Christmas - his name is Chopper. He was made from a kit from Vivianne Galli of Hug Me Again.

Chopper is only about 4.25 inches tall! He was so much fun to make! He has German glass eyes, and his head is on a disc, so it can turn. All hand stitched. It is the softest peach Mohair. I did not age mine as much as she does, and I added a little flower to his paw.

You can visit Vivianne at her beautiful blog, Gotta Share This, where she shows more of her amazing creations! I would love to purchase one of the bears she has made -- someday... :o)

Thanks for visiting!

some sewing... :o)

Here are the two wallhanging quilts that I finished the tops for, over the last few weeks... I think I will be hand-quilting them both... :o)

Carol (Cornfield Quilter) got me hooked on hexagons, and I found this Patriot's Home quilt in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of McCall's Quilting... I left off the outer border, so it would fit on my quilt rack/shelf above my embroidery machine... :o)Beatrice (A Needle In A Haystack) sent me the Schnibbles *Picnic* pattern for Christmas, and this is my version. I had a couple of charm packs of *A Beautiful Time* by RJR Fabrics that I was saving for a special project, and this was the right project! I *LOVE* this - it is SO me!
And everyone has been talking about all the snow... We got our first snow of the season, starting Christmas Day... I took this photo the next morning... :o)

By the way, ignore the dates on my photos - the little knob on our camera is broken that allows you to change the date, or take it off there... Hopefully we will be getting a new camera sometime in the New Year... :o)

Thanks for visiting!

for me...?!

Sometimes this whole internet thing still just blows me away! I am just a small-town girl (hometown population 500!) and to *meet* folks from all over the world thru this computer, is just amazing to me! I have met some of the nicest people thru blogs and groups online!

Which leads me to Laurie! :o) I *met* Laurie of Indulge Your Shelf when I had her as my partner for a pincushion swap this summer, and we have many similar interests, so have kept in touch via blog posts and emails ever since... Jim even ordered Christmas ornaments from Laurie's Etsy shop, back in August, for my birthday! Well, yesterday, when the mail lady knocked on our door, I was greeted with a HUGE box -- from Laurie! What could this be?!?! Laurie and I often *drool* over the same vintage things and awhile back, we had been chatting about these Christmas wreaths on a blog, made from vintage Christmas ornaments! So apparently, Laurie decided to try her hand at making one, and SHE SENT IT TO ME!!! It is absolutely gorgeous! Am I lucky or what?!?! Be sure to click on the photo, to see it better! It even has the cutest little Santa tucked in there! (I do still believe in Santa!) Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Laurie! This was so sweet of you! (I will surprise you when you least expect it...!)

And here is a photo of the kids the other night. They are in Chorus, and we went to their Winter Concert. (Whatever happened to Christmas programs with CHRISTMAS songs?!?!? Public schools, ggrrr!) They enjoyed dressing up and singing... Jimmy behaved fairly well, except for tumbling down the bottom two bleacher rows! OOPS! He is alright - was running around again two minutes later! :o)

Thanks so much for visiting! And do make sure to go visit Laurie and tell her hi too! :o)