2010

When you look at it this way... I think I might have gone a little overboard! 2010 was a wonderful year!! Here's to a wonderful 2011! Happy New Year!!

A pretty good haul!

I got some great quilting Christmas presents this year! From an awesome gripper for my straight edge (no more missing fingernails!) to Quilt Clips (can't wait to use these!!). I also got a fabric store gift card (Thanks Hubby!!) and some awesome charm packs!

My sister gave me this charm pack! The line is called Sunkissed and it's my new favorite!!! I can't wait to make this cheerful quilt!! Yea!!!

Christmas Table Topper

One last project!!! This was a bonus project, made with scraps from the massive pile I have, and only took one day! I am so happy I did this one! It's cute, and I got to practice applique a little more! So, here's my Christmas Table Topper!



Now, all of my Christmas sewing project are done! To recap, over this past month I have made: 4 quilts, 2 dresses, a few mug rugs, an advent calender, a table topper, and 17 cute little mini-quilt wall hangings for the young women in our ward. Here's a picture of those!


After all that... I'm not even going to turn on my sewing machine until after Christmas! lol! Now it's onto making some yummy treats to take to neighbors! ;)

Merry Christmas everybody!!!

The Princess's Dress

Here are a few (not very good) pictures of the little princess's Christmas dress! It turned out really cute! I wish the pictures were better, but it's been raining for 4 straight days, so we really can't get outside! Oh, well! Here it is!

One more Christmas project and I'm finished!! Yay!

A Cherished Memory

So, my uber talented friend Valerie took some amazing family pictures for me (They. Are. AWESOME!!!) Here's a taste...


You can see more of our wonderful photo shoot HERE (Go look! Really! She's amazing!!!)

Anyway, in return, she asked if I could recreate a very special quilt for her.

This was her own baby blanket that her mother made for her before she was born.


A darling Mother Goose quilt! As you can see, it was very well loved.

Valerie really wanted to have one like it for her own daughter (who may well be the cutest baby on the planet... just saying), but she and her mom couldn't find the pattern anywhere, and because her mom in now legally blind, she couldn't make up a new pattern herself.

So, Val asked if I thought I could do it. And, naturally, I said "Sure!"

I came up with the pattern simply by tracing the appliques, although I did round out some of the curves until they looked right to me. I had to seriously think this one through to get everything right - and I am SO pleased with the end result. So, here is the newly recreated Mother Goose Quilt:

Valerie choose these beautiful fabrics, and they look so awesome together!! She has such a great eye!

Yes, Mother Goose's wing is attached to the front and can flap. It's awesome!

The back... I had to do another stripe! lol!

And I had to throw in this little guy on the back! He's cute! :)

I have to say, that I may be most proud of this quilt. It was an honor to make this very special quilt, and I hope that in 30 years, it looks just as loved as her moms! Hope you love it Val and Addy!!!

Freebird #2

My Mother-in-law asked me to make another of my Freebird quilt, to give a friend, so I set out to recreate my favorite quilt. Some of the colors had to change, but it still turned out beautiful! I think this is the best quilt I have done so far! I am so happy that it's done and that it turned out so well!!! So, here it is - Freebird #2!!

Two more Christmas deadline projects to go!! I think I can do it!! :)

An Advent Calendar!

We get Advent Calendars every year. They're fun! But this year - okay, last year - I thought it would be fun to make one. I didn't do it last year, so this year I made on with all the left overs from the Christmas quilts. It turned out CUTE!!! I did a lot of applique on it and just LOVE it!!!!


My appliqued presents! I used leftover squares from the argyle quilt and added the bows! I love them!!

The mitten and pinwheel pockets were made from leftovers from Christmas Quilt #2. I think they are fun!

I needed a simple, happy word for the top and "Joy" just seemed to fit the bill (and the space) just perfectly. The holly berries were and after thought, but I am so glad I got them on there! So cute!

Cute, cute, cute! I filled the pockets with candy and the kids are thrilled to get a little treat every day! This is one of my favorite traditions, and I am so glad that we now have a permenant one to hang every year!!

So, that's 4 Christmas projects down and 3 to go. I am thrilled with the ones coming up, so stay tuned!!

Christmas Quilt #2

I have finished my second Christmas quilt, and it looks really fun!

However, this quilt shall be named "Murphy". Because everything that can go wrong did.

It all started way back in July when I first bought the fabric. Hubby was away at Scout Camp, so I was up late cutting the darling Christmas fabric for this quilt. While I was doing this - I cut my thumb nail off. OFF. It was gross. I should have seen it as an omen, but I laughed at myself, and moved on.

I put the cut fabric away, until a few weeks ago when I pulled it out to work on it again. Here's everything that went down...

I sewed several squares wrong, and had to unpick and redo them.

As I sewed the blocks together, I sewed them in the wrong order (on EVERY ROW), had to unpick and redo.

When I sewed the rows together, I managed to sew them in the wrong order. Had to unpick and redo.

While I was quilting, I ran out of thread (that has NEVER happened to me before!) It happened to be on a Sunday, so I couldn't run off to the store to buy more and had to wait. Grrr.

As I quilted I found a spot where I had missed the fabric on a seam. GRRRR. No good way to fix it at that point.

Twice, my tension went all crazy and I had to unpick, fix the machine, and redo. I was ready to rip the quilt up for a while there...

BUT, even with all of that, the quilt turned out cute! I quilted with orange thread and I have to admit... I love it! It's fun!! I also LOVE the backing fabric of this quilt!! So fun! Because of all of the mistakes, I have decided that I am going to keep it, as there is no way I could sell and feel good about it. So, it will adorn my couch for the holidays! Yea!

So.... Yea for Christmas quilts, even if they give you a hard time!

A Baptism Dress

Last week, my mom asked me if I would want to make my niece a baptism dress. For next week. Naturally, I said "Sure!" So, I set out to make a pretty dress, quickly. I ended up using the pattern from the ball gown, and using simple, white fabrics. It turned out pretty. I hope my sweet niece likes it (and that it fits!). I mailed it off today! Here are some (not great) pictures...

I did a little hand beading on the sash and loved how it turned out. Just a little bit of sparkle!

I added a sheer overlay, and love how shimmery it makes the skirt.

Long, white, and pretty! I hope she loves it!!

Argyle Christmas Quilt

I have been having a great time making this little Christmas quilt! I got the idea from a tutorial at Piece 'N Quilt, and thought that it would be a darling Christmas Quilt! I was right!

So, here it is! My first Christmas Quilt!! I call it Argyle Christmas Quilt (I know... original, right? lol!)

So fun! It's in the shop!! (But until it sells, it's going to be on my wall! ;)) Stay tuned for my second Christmas quilt soon!!

A Giveaway at Burgundy Buttons!

Burgundy Buttons is one of my FAVORITE online fabric stores!!! And they are having a giveaway for $25 at their store! Head on over and enter!!!

Blatant Theft

So, last night I was up late, alone, and desperately trying to pass some time. You know what means? Surfing the web, and blatantly stealing other people's ideas. Muahaha!

My friend Jen made this really adorable mug rug, and linked to a great tutorial for them, so... I stole the idea and made one for me too! Using, of course, some Freebird leftovers!


Fast, fun, and really cute! I love this little mug rug!!! And... I love something fun to use up scraps!! Yea!!

Hiccup

About the costume that I made for the little man... This has a story... Every year that the little man has been alive, I have borrowed a costume for him from my sweet neighbor at the last minute. They are always cute, and just on Monday I talked to her about coming over to get another one for him.

Now, last week I spent 5 days focusing on nothing but potty training. He even missed preschool on Monday. He was fine to go on Wednesday, but when I showed up, I realized that it was his first preschool Halloween party. And I didn't have a costume for him. What kind of mother am I?!? I felt so bad!!! Luckily, his teacher had a spare spider costume that he wore.


But I still felt bad! So, to make up for it - I decided not to borrow a costume for him (for the 4th time) but to make him one. I knew he would want to be a Monstrous Nightmare (a dragon from How to Train Your Dragon), but I really didn't have time for a decent dragon costume. So, we compromised... I made him a Hiccup costume.

Here's Hiccup from the movie. Without any patterns, I managed to copy the costume pretty well. What do you think?


I think it turned out really well. And he LOVES it!!

Halloween. It's my favorite!

So, Halloween is my favorite holiday! Why? Costumes. Candy. Do I really need any other reason? I think not.

So, I didn't get around to making myself an awesome Halloween costume this year (sad face), but I have a fun one planned. It'll rely more on my mad hair and makeup skills (snort), so hopefully it'll work out! I'll post pictures later, but for now I want to take a look back at some of my favorite costumes made by me, for me.

This was two years ago. I was Elizabeth Bennett. You know that's right!

This was last year. I was an elf (think Lord of the Rings, maybe...). I won a costume contest for this (thanks Val!) and won AWESOME monster cocoa mugs. They are my favorite! I even use them during Christmastime. lol!

Here is a few of the little princesses costumes that I have made.

Tinkerbell. It was the first costume I ever made. The tulle was a nightmare, but it turned out cute! The shoes were originally black. Spray paint. Hey, it worked!

My cute little witch! I can't believe I gave that cape to charity this year. What was I thinking?? I'll have to make another one sometime!

So, this year I am only making one costume. For my little man. Story and pictures to come!!

Freebird

It's done! And... um, yeah - I'm totally keeping it! :) So, with no further delays, I (proudly) present Freebird Window Quilt...


Having an off centered strip down the back is sort of becoming my signature thing. I don't usually plan for it, but for some reason I keep messing up the measurements for the back fabric and have to widen it up. Oops. But I always love the outcome, so... no harm, no foul, right?

I absolutely love the orange fabrics in this line! I think they were the real reason I want to keep this one!

I think the absolute best decision I made on this quilt was to create windows - framing the blocks with white. As I mentioned, I have seen several other quilts with this fabric and they were really - really - busy. I think separating the colors with just an inch of white really made all of the difference. I love the blocks - each with a contrast - but the white frames created a showcase for each block, rather than ending up with a holy nightmare of colors trying to compete right next to each other. Wow, that was a long explanation. ;)

The quilt is a twin size quilt - 66 x 78. Great size for snuggling! I am so excited to have a beautiful quilt just for me!! Yea!