with one day to spare!

With only one day to spare, my nieces' quilts are finished.

This one is a Raggy quilt made for my sister's oldest daughter.

And there are two quilts like this one... one for each of her youngest girls, who nearly think they are twins.

I wanted to make all three of them raggy quilts, but the black fabric, cute though it is, is NOT flannel. Despite the fact that it was in the flannel aisle and I was not paying attention the day I bought all the fabric for these projects. So, I made them into regular quilts. They are very warm. The colors didn't turn out as cute as I had hoped, but each of the quilts is very much made with love, so hopefully that will add to the charm.

ah.... now quilts for my sister's girls

Whew! The whirlwind of activity and stuff I had to do for others is done. Now onto something I have been wanting to get to for a month now: raggy quilts for my sister's girls.

The two youngest ones like pink and green and the older one likes purple. I have cut about half of the material into 6 inch squares. When I finish that, the fun part of laying out each of the quilts begins, and then onto the sewing and "ragging".

Hopefully in January I can get to finish the other quilts I am making for moi.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

pedaling as fast as possible

I am busily embroidering stuff for others to give as Christmas gifts, so my time is not my own for awhile. I'm hurrying though, because there is so much I want to finish/start.

A friend of mine, a mom of three sons, commissioned me to make stockings for the two significant young women in her life - her daughter-in-law and her one-day-soon-daughter-in-law. I love how they turned out. I gotta say, the pink roses trim that we got at Hancock's is scrumptious!

just in time

Yay, leaves!

Just in time for Thanksgiving, I finished this reversible dress for my youngest. Of course the side shown in the picture is brown with lime green polka dots. The pockets are brown/lime houndstooth and the reverse side is solid lime green. Both sides are made of baby corduroy. I thought it would be way too thick to use baby cord on both sides, but I am glad to be wrong this time.

c'est finis

>>>Whoo hoo!<<<

I've only been waiting for forever to find the time to sew the binding onto this quilt!

It is in the dryer right now. It had gotten dusty waiting for me to finish it, so when I sewed my last stitch (all on machine, because I am a lazy daisy) I threw it into the washer. I can just imagine the girls bundling up underneath its vintage sweetness on a chilly Saturday morning and watching Bugs Bunny and Road Runner on DVD with their silly brothers.

jelly roll, jelly roll, now let me see that jelly roll

This is the beginning of a quilt made with my very first jelly roll, the "Soiree" line, made by Lila Tueller for Moda fabrics. I got it when I went to see my very first quilt show. A local fabric store had all their jelly rolls and fat quarters on sale for, like, 30% off or something enticing. There are a million different ways I could have done the strips, but I went the simple route and just sewed them in horizontal lines. When I spread it out just now, it looked like a spring picnic.

Can't wait to get this one finished!

wanted: selvage edges

selvage square

I know it would be tedious, but I want to do this... make something out of the poor, unused, mostly tossed selvage edges of fabric. My friend, Tori, made the cutest wallet out of them and I was inspired. Now I am dreaming of ALL the things I could make. Something has me thinking

selvage quilt binding.

elegant

Just doesn't get any lovelier than this.

White linen napkins with a white embroidered initial.

a qult for a friend with cancer

This is a "raggy" quilt made of seven different flannels. Using a total of 5 yards, the blocks are cut in 8 x 8 squares. Finished quilt measures 45 x 60. The quilt was a group effort by all the ladies in the Mom's Night Out sewing classes for one of their classmates, Allison, who began a battle with breast cancer last week.

more stuff for baby

This time it is a little travel-sized pillowcase.

I was given carte blanche as to what to do with it... there were so many things I thought about.

One of my favorites that nearly got embroidered on the case was a pink chandelier.

Chandeliers are big in the world of home fashion, just look. But, if nothing else in the room goes along with the whole idea, I guess it would be dumb, huh?

easy breezy lemon squeezy

My youngest child's playschool teacher is expecting and asked me to embroider some of the gifts she got at a recent baby shower.


I nearly dropped my teeth when she showed me the burp cloth packages. For $18 Buy Buy Baby sells these "designer" burp cloths. Now, granted they are absolutely the most adorable things ever.... but, really!


One of the burp cloths has grosgrain ribbon sewn onto either side of the middle. The other burp cloth has a panel of super soft flannel. Can it get any easier to reproduce? I doubt it. I'm thinking craft fair, aren't you?


Anyway, here is how they turned out with the embroidery on them:

my first craft show

Ok, so my very good friend, Tori, and I are going to go in together and have a table at a craft show coming up in March. Seems like a long way away, doesn't it? Yeaaaaah. Sure.

So, we are thinking about sewing outfits... she has a beautiful flair for pairing some really fun, funky fabrics together and making a wonderful ensemble. Me? I'm less "out there" and tend to choose more classic prints. So, we figure we will have the corner market (or the market cornered - heh heh - whichever way you want to look at it) on stuff to choose from.

We are thinking about getting a certain number of patterns, say, 4, and making one in each size, like a size 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 that are all the same fabric. So there will be 4 different styles/color combinations with 5 sizes each.

Clear as mud?

Have any of you done craft shows? (Either as a vendor or customer) What tips/pointers can you give us?

operation: modesty ministry

Last week and over the weekend I have carried on what my husband refers to as "The Modesty Ministry", in which I offer my time and skills as a seamstress to lower the hems on the school uniform skirts.
whirr whirr whirr
About 25 girls now have longer, more modest skirts. (whether they wanted that or not)

guess who figured out how to do appliques?

Well, officially it is my second applique, but this one I actually got paid for. The only thing cuter is the little boy who will be wearing it.

hey diddle diddle

For a little boy, soon to be ONE!

but wait, there's more

Today was the day to hand over the quilt (and a couple of other special items) to its rightful owner. I had one more item to add to it .... I wasn't sure if I should or not. I decided to.

Now, after hearing the story of The Bonnet, I am thankful that I did. Not wanting to cut the ties, just in case the family ever decides they want it off of the quilt, I couldn't figure out what to do with them. Then it dawned on me. The quilt is called "A Mother's Love", why not spell LOVE with the ties?

The story of The Bonnet (paraphrased - and I hope I remember the story correctly) as told to me by the sweet, young lady who is very happy to have gotten her quilt:

"When we were little, my sister and I had Cabbage Patch dolls. My parents were building a house on the lake, but we had a trailer to live in while it was being built. On Christmas day, the trailer caught on fire. My mom ran in and the only thing she grabbed was our dolls. This is the bonnet from my doll. The little marks are from that day."

a mother's love: complete

Well, the first quilt I was commissioned to do is complete. Whew! As I mentioned previously, it is made of squares from:

• an old, tattered double wedding ring quilt
• the wedding dress from the lady who sewed the double wedding ring quilt
• hospital gowns from the grandchildren of the above-mentioned lady
• fabric picked out by the daughter/grandchildren
• fabric from sentimental garments such as baby dresses
• misc. fabrics such as jeans

I embroidered a label to go on the back of the quilt. Before I went to that quilt show a couple of weekends back, I didn't know that quilts 'had to' have names.

Naturally, this quilt is called "A Mother's Love".

I stitched in the ditch around each square, first doing all the horizontal lines, starting from the middle, then stitching all the vertical lines in the same manner. Thank the good Lord nothing got messed up or wonky. In fact, the quilt sort of looks like a down comforter on the back. Very cool.

file under category: had to have

I only went into the fabric store for rotary cutter blades. But then I saw this vintage McCall pattern fabric. "What, oh, what could I make with this?" I kept asking myself. I don't want to cut it up, because it is so wonderful like it is. It will have to be a quilt. Not a piecework quilt, just a plain ol' blanket quilt. Piece on top, piece underneath, batting in the middle, and a border.

"Now, what fabric will go with it?"

go, enter this giveaway

I can't believe her generosity.

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Halloween Costume giveaway.

beauty

This is what I saw in the antique store those 7 or so years back.

I nearly fainted when I saw that it contained this black beauty.

Vintage.

Treadle.

My grandmother is the only person I know who can operate one of these.

How wonderful would it be for me to learn from her?!?!

the 12' square

Here is a close up from my favorite quilt from the quilt show. There were so many examples of this pattern, that my friend, Michele, decided that there had to have been a class and everyone entered their quilt. It looks easy enough.

Update: I found out when I went to visit a little quilting shop (oh yeah, baby, that was fun!) that this pattern is called "Turning Twenty". It is called such because it takes only 20 fat quarters to make the quilt. The woman said that she made one start to finish in a day.

a day of firsts

Today a friend and I went to a quilt show. I had never been to one before. Simply. Amazing. The photos I took will not do any of the quilts justice.

This is what we saw when we walked through the doors. It sort of made me gasp.

*********

Most of the quilts were "traditional" and had a "pattern" to them. Some were very non-traditional and had no rhyme nor reason to them. There were a couple that looked very much like a Georgia O'Keefe painting.

This one was HILARIOUS! It is titled "Road Kill". I guess it requires no explanation.

**********

I think the cubical look of these two is very cool.

***********

Although you can't see the detail in this picture, this quilt artist used "thread painting" techniques to achieve some pretty awesome details.

**********

This one was so bright and colorful and must have taken a million hours.

**********

Even though there are NO circles at all in this one, you still see them, don't you?

************

This quilt is the reason I came home with a Moda "jelly roll" and a few matching fat quarters.

*************

This one, called Sunny Side Up, must have a billion little squares. I know she must know some major rotary cutting shortcuts.

************

Though the red is a bit severe, I love the way this one looks like so many Victorian nosegays.

***********

All three of these quilts, plus a few more, must have been made in a class, as they are made with the same 12" square pattern. See if you can pick it out. The first one was my favorite.

*************

clever clever idea

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////

//////We have been getting a lot of rain lately. //////

//////This would be so cool to make./////

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

latest project

(I wouldn't want anyone to think I was idle.)

I am making a quilt for a young woman who was given my name by a mutual friend. It will be crafted from various clothes that her daughters wore as toddlers, part of her mother's wedding gown, and part of a quilt that her mother made many years before she passed away.

*******************
This was the quilt that her mother made.... after many years of being loved by her daughter and grandchildren. What a comfort it must have been to wrap up in its soft, Double Wedding Ringed beauty.

*************

I am being very careful to reinforce each 6x6" square I make from it.

*******************

Here are a few of the 9 patch squares I've made. Thought about attempting the Disappearing Nine Patch pattern, but decided since there was such a difference in patterns/textures/types of material, that I'd better not.

*********************

fun little denim pants

Well, the silhouette pants were so easy to put together, I decided to go ahead and make these out of 18 inches of denim I bought from the remnant rack at Joanne's.

***

One of our sewing students in our first Thursday night "Moms' Night Out Sewing Class", Lisa, made a pair of pants VERY similar to these. Though envy is such a dark word, let's just say I really liked how hers turned out. We call the ruffle at the bottom of the pants the "Lisa Ruffle".

silhouette pants

I am having a hard time narrowing the field of options for a top to go with these pants I made today. The fabric is by Michael Miller. So incredibly cute. I have a complimentary fabric (white with black silhouettes) but need to make a decision soon.