quilt

as my husband likes to say, i totally "rocked it out on a couple of christmas gifts this year.  really i did.  i made this little lovely for my mama.  can i say how much i love this without sounding all braggy?  because this quilt turned out so fabulous.   

400 little squares and barely a dent in my fabric stash.

the beautiful back fabric.  i love the red.

she was actually so lovely, that i made two quilts for christmas.  one for my mama and one for my mama-in-law.  but i'm so mad at myself for not getting a picture of that one!  it took me up until the last morning to finish a few stitches and i was trying to hurry to wrap it and forgot to take the picture.  boo!  it was the same design but the beauty of using scrap fabrics is that it makes each quilt totally unique.    i really, really liked this quilt and am tempted to make me one!  

randoms

random #1
she's on! the quilting frame that is.  and it's just in time for the new season of parenthood.  i don't watch much tv as i find most shows are just not that appealing.  really, i don't care about who can sing and who can't, who's trying to find love by trying to act sleazy, i don't care for fake tv crime shows, etc and etc.   but i do like parenthood and amazing race, and the occasionally hoarders streamed through netflix.  when i watch tv i really would rather have something to DO at the same time, you know?  so it's perfect now that i have my daughter's quilt that needs to be quilted.  i'll handquilt this one since it's so special, like i did her brother's.   i LOVE how this quilt turned out.  it took a ridiculous amount of time to piece together because i lost some of the squares i had cut and refused to make new ones.  but everything has been found now and it's just so lovely!  i can't wait to show you how it turns out.  it's "her" in every way.

random #2
i made these lovelies recently for my daughters y-princess meeting.  i actually did something i saw off pinterest.  i usually just look and pretend that i'll make the recipe or wear the clothes.  they looked way cuter in person, trust me.  there was bad lighting that day.

my husband told me they were the best rice krispies ever.  apparently i managed to get the perfect ratio of krispies to marshmallow. the secret?  forget to buy a new box of rice krispies and just use the little your have left, but shh! don't tell anyone that juicy tidbit.

i used tootsie rolls for the stem and the leaves were made out of these "sugar sheets" i found at michaels.  they came in a whole range of colors and i just cut the leaves free handed, as if you couldn't tell.  cute, easy, and impressive to 6&7 year olds.

random #3
my littlest one turned three recently.  sniff.  i can't believe it.

he requested a yellow and blue cake with sprinkles.  well, actually he first asked for a banana cake,  but luckily i managed to change his mind. (whew!  dodged a bullet there.)

random #4

i wanted to show a picture we took.  it's priceless because it shows all three of my kids getting along and doing the same thing at one time.  

ok, ok, ok.  so sure, they JUST happen to be sleeping at the time, but still, they weren't fighting.  i'll take what i can get.  you gotta problem with that?

my son's quilt

I realized the other day that I have yet to show off my son's quilt that I started forever ago.  This was my largest quilt to date and I'm so happy with it!  I picked the design and the fabrics, but I let him give me the color scheme.  He wanted orange, green, and blue.  I have to say he picked just right, too!

I used a log cabin variation with just a few stripped blocks to break it up a bit.  

I discovered that my machine will not handle a full size quilt, it can barely handle a twin.  Bummer!  So I had to pull out my grandmother's quilting hoop and get to work.  This time I used embroidery thread for the quilting for the first time.  I love the detail of it and it went SO much faster than using traditional hand quilting thread.  

 The ever time consuming hand quilting.  

 The back pieced with two fabrics.

 A little label I printed out and attached to the back.  It makes me happy to know he has this little letter from me to him telling him how much I love him.  Always.

A close-up of one of the blocks

 Folded up at the end of the bed in his orange room.

This is a sneak peek at the quilt I'm making for my little girl.  It's coming together beautifully and it's so her!  I just love it!

a letter of love to my son

Well, it's sneak preview of the letter I'm "writing." I'm writing this letter with the instruments I know well. It's one of the best ways for me to express myself.  I have begun my first quilt for the oldest child.

As much as I hate to admit it, one day I will have to leave my son. I don't know when that day will be, but I know one day I will die and have to leave him here on this earth to fend for himself. Hopefully that day won't happen until I've at least hugged and loved all over his grandchildren, but that day will come nonetheless. It comes to us all.

This quilt will hopefully remind him always that he was loved, completely and thoroughly, by his mama. One day, I won't be there to calm his fears, to comfort his sorrows away, to laugh at the fun moments, and to contemplate the peaceful ones. But, I do hope that he will always feel me in his heart when those moments come. 

This quilt will keep him warm as a child while I'm still in the next room listening to him sleep. It might become a picnic blanket where he proposes to his future wife. This quilt might one day be the place my grandchildren learn to crawl. It might be the one his family uses to curl up in on a cold winter's night or it might become a tent as it's thrown over a table for his grandchildren to play under. And one day, when he's old and he's lived his 100 years, maybe his granddaughter will spread this quilt over him to keep him warm as he lives out his final days. And then, at the moment, I hope he will remember my arms around him keeping him safe, my kisses on his cheek because I love him so, my laughter at his silly jokes.  He will know, that I'm just on the other side of Heaven waiting for him and I hope that makes him smile.  All this, from a simple handmade quilt.

(I cry just thinking about this, I love him so!)

what I'm crushing on right now...

Besides my sweet hubby, of course!  And, no, it's not another man.  It's my newest quilt blocks! 
These are my first triangles ever and I think I totally rocked them.  I get all giddy when I look at them, so I think I'm in love with them.  I can't wait to make some more.  I figured I'll only do a few on the weekend so I don't get too burnt out on them since you do have to concentrate a little more on these versus squares and rectangles.  So pleased with myself!

it's all done, finally

Finally, finally, finally, I finished the quilting and the binding of my nine-patch quilt. It's embarrassing as to how loooong this took. But it's done. I made a lot of mistakes, and I've learned a whole heck of a lot. So, in that regard, it's a success.

I just had to share my view all morning. I know one day I will long to see this again, but right now....

Since I finished that quilt, I'm on to another! Yippee!

quilt a long

To my credit I DID finish this quilt top in time thank you very much. I just haven't been able to get a picture of the top yet. It's either been raining or too blazing hot to get outside when I had someone to hold the quilt for me. I just have to say that I LOVE THIS QUILT! Love, love, love , love it. Ok, well, there is one teeny tiny thing that irks me about it, but I won't point it out. I'm not, and I can let it go. Esp. since the top is done and I can't possibly cut out out the one block and fix it.

I won't.

Even though I have thought about it. "It" as in fixing the one block that screams at me. Right, that would be too much?

I wonder if any of you can guess what it is? If you can, well, you can call yourself the Master of Details, you sure can.

But, I'm letting my perfection tendencies go and simply loving this quilt top.

it's just one a day!

For crying out loud, it's just one quilted square a day! That's all I have to do for the quilt-a-long I'm participating in. But, somehow, it's SO hard to find the time to squeeze it in. I'm playing catch up today while I have some quiet. Between school, play date, and a nap, I have all 3 kids occupied and I have a moment to myself! (I'm quite giddy over it)

I have 23 squares done, I need to have...hold on let me go check...43 done today to be up to date! Yikes, I'm really behind, that's worse than I thought.

Anyways, these are some of my favorites:

And even one I hate...really I need to just take it apart...

9 patch quilt a long

I've actually almost caught up with my quilt-a-long! Can you hear the surprise in my voice? I love this quilt-a-long because I'm using up my scraps which have taken over my fabric storage. The pics aren't the greatest because we've had a lot of cloudy rainy days here and can't seem to get good lighting. But trust me, they are really cute. I can't decide which are my favorites.

adding to my list....

As if I didn't have enough to do, I've decided to join in on a quilt-a-long. I love to read the blog over at Crazy Mom Quilts, I swear I don't know how she does all those quilts. But, she's put together a quilt-a-long for a nine patch quilt with a goal of doing one square a day. And by summer's end you should have 70 squares done.

We'll see.

It started on Monday. It's now Friday. Total number of squares completed: one. So, I'm a little behind, maybe my quilt will just be a doll sized. :)

I have a craft show tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to getting it behind me. I absolutely adore sewing, and I like to sew for other people. I'm just feeling a little burnt out. My mind is jammed packed with ideas of items I want to sew for our home, for our bodies, for play, and for me to carry around. My poor little brain just can't contain them all! So after much thought and discussion, I'm taking a sabbatical of sorts after this craft show. I'll still post the one or two items left over that do not sell. (Hey, I got high hopes. A girl can dream, can't she?) But, I'm not going to sew for the business.

I'm going to be selfish and hoard all the beautiful fabric for myself and recharge my creativity. I will still write in the blog and keep you handful of readers up to date on all my ventures. You're relieved, I can tell. But don't worry, your favorite blog will still be around for you. ;)

too much quilting...

I'm in the middle of tackling several huge projects, apart from what I'm sewing for upcoming craft shows. I don't know why I do this...I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. Right now, I've got three big quilting projects that simply NEED to get complete. One is on my machine right now. It's my quilt that will be donated. I'm happy to finally get the top done and am about halfway done quilting it.

Next, I have my quilt I started ages ago which was supposed to use up a good portion of my stash. (sadly, I still have quite the stash of fabric)

And last, this beast, is a fireplace cover. What is that you ask? It's a cleverly designed (but not by me) quilted slipcover that ties around my fireplace to protect a little noggin as he explores his world. I figure I have about another month before Ian begins crawling. So, this keeps getting pushed back. Maybe, once I get this done I can explain how to make it. Because I know I will NEVER make one to sell...my little machine can barely handle making the one!

My newest quilt

I have a huge fabric stash. I really do and hang my head in shame with just how bad it is. Just ask my family, it's mildly embarrassing. If I didn't know that so many other fabric junkies out there didn't have the very same problem, I might feel worse. Hmm, I wonder if the Intervention show on A&E would consider tackling my problem?

Anyways, I thought I would try and rectify the "situation" by creating a scarp quilt. Sadly, it didn't even put a dent in it. I used 2 x 6 in rectangles and 2x2 squares. I was worried how I would like it because the fabric is so random and some of which I don't really care about it to begin with. But, I think it's turning out quite nice. I can't wait to finish it! The picture doesn't do it justice. Once it's pressed nicely and all laid out, it's quite charming.

Major Milestone!

I finally completed my first quilt! It's been a very long time in the making, a very long time. But to my defense, I did have to put it away while we had our house on the market and then it was missing in a box in the garage for quite some time as well. I know it's nothing fancy, but I love it. I hand quilted the darn thing. I'm ready to start on my next quilt, but I'm gonna try and machine quilt the next one.

As a side note, I swear I'm not going to buy any new fabric until I've whittled away at my stash. Really, I'm not.

what I did this weekend

I hate those ugly metal fuse box panels. They just stick out like a sore thumb, and I prefer to conceal them. I made my first quilted wall hanging to cover mine! I'm so excited about it. It was fun to come up with a picture in my head and then see it develop into so something stinkin' cute.

I had never done any machine stippling before (the random all over quilt design). It's remarkably easy. I saw somewhere a suggestion to practice by drawing a continuous curving line on paper to get the feel of it. Once I did that, I realized "oh is that all this is"! If you've never tried it before, don't be intimidated, it's hard to mess up completely. I know this isn't perfection and I wasn't trying to make it that way luckily! :) I went for a primitive in approach, yet modern in design look. To stick with that look, I didn't do mitered corners or anything like that when I bound the quilt. I simply attached short strips to each side. Which I'm glad doesn't look out of place on this quilt. I was desperate to finish it Sunday night. I had 30 min. before the kids and husband came home from Awanas at church, the baby was 30 minutes past his feeding time and I was leaking milk. I wouldn't have had time to cut bias strips and miter the corners if I had wanted, too!

Now, my laundry is complete. I'm off to get my dining room done now. I can't wait to show you the dining room chairs when I'm done recovering them!