Mini Monday: Color Bars

This colorful mini quilt top is another creation using leftover QuiltCon fabric scraps.  Apparently I ordered way more fabric than I needed for that challenge.  No worries as I love the colors.

Future Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt

This will be sent to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative once it is quilted and registered.  This will make two already for October!

Color Bars

I love making quilts for the AAQI, and it also gives me a fun excuse to play with my scraps.  The center sections of these bars are tiny pieces of scraps that some may consider too small to save, but I have a sickness that will not allow me to throw any fabric away not me ;-)

Using linen

I also made a {practice} pencil case.  The first one turned out not so gift-giving worthy so I am keeping it for myself and will make another one for giving.  The pattern is from the book Zakka Style and is another great scrap busting project.  It additionally provided a reason to use the linen I recently received from Pink Chalk.  

These two mini projects provided a fun distraction from the great granny square blocks I am currently making.  There are several other small projects I have my eye on.....

Happy Monday!

Play Days

Over the weekend, I spent some time working on smaller projects, trying a tutorial that I found on Pinterest, and learning a new technique.

For our guild's February Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt crayon challenge, I pulled out my mango and lemon fabrics and started piecing a mini crazy quilt.  I am excited about playing around with decorative stitches and different threads.

It's been forever since I have attended a baby shower, but when I saw these burp cloths on Pinterest I knew I wanted to make some for an upcoming baby shower.  I have only made this one so far from Aneela Hoey's Little Apples, but I plan to make several more.

 The biggest play day of all was spending an entire Saturday with my guild friends learning needle turn appliqué from Mary Sorenson!  This has been on my list of techniques to learn for a very long time. Mary's work is incredible, and she is a fabulous teacher!  I bought her DVD since I know once I get home I tend to forget what I learned in class ;-)

I was too busy learning to take many pictures, but I did snap this one of Leslie's handwork.  Michele has pictures on her blog.  Go see how pretty her flowers are!

Happy stitching!

Switcheroo

Remember when I made my new ironing station....I was so proud of my mad handyman skills....I couldn't wait to use my staple gun again...

Thanks to an extra board and unwanted home decor fabric from my friend Heather, I made a desk for my daughter have a different ironing board!

The photo was taken with my cell phone (as you can tell my SLR is on the board) and doesn't do justice to my favorite blue color coordinated with striped fabric.  

I absolutely love having the extra work/ironing space and thought of making a desk for my daughter's room with the second board, but once I saw the blue I realized this would work better in my studio....it matches my new mini quilt!

So now, the Amy-Butler-fabric-covered table is in my daughter's room and will be made into a desk.  We picked out a pair of storage units from IKEA to serve as the base...still waiting on those...out of stock....in the meantime two barstools are doing the job.

In keeping with the Amy Butler theme, I quilted this orphan spiderweb block that had been hanging out on my design wall to go in my daughter's room as well.

I have quite a few Amy Butler orphan blocks, and I think I'll make one of these memo boards.

I love this backing fabric.  As you can see, I just zigzag stitched around the edges rather than use binding.

I also moved into my daughter's room two other mini quilts that were in my studio.

This was my daughter's first trip to IKEA, and she was overwhelmed (in a good way)!  We had lunch in the cafeteria before shopping to plan our strategy, and this was the first thing we saw as we walked into the showroom!  How cool is this sewing area?!

Ally wanted her picture taken in several of her "favorite" rooms.  We ended up with quite a few accessories (and more than a few ideas) including this pink chair (that I put together all by myself).

Just like all my other projects....this one is a WIP!

Still Traveling

I spent a wonderful weekend with family doing things we like to do....eating, visiting, eating some more...

...you know how it is with the eating...homemade cooking you can't get anywhere else....hometown eateries that haven't changed in thirty years.  At this rate, I will not be able to fit into the dress I bought for my son's graduation!

My sister brought her sewing machine and is quilting her son's quilt today.  She was nice enough to bring extra fabric for me to play with as well as her cutting mat and rotary cutter.

I made her a needle book from this tutorial I had seen on another blog.

It's rather large, but I like that it has pockets for scissors and other hand sewing supplies like this cute sewing kit my mom bought me....don't you love the saying on top!

That's what I plan to do today....rip and sew....and visit!

Have an amazing day!!!

Hope you get to sew and visit today too...

A little of this...

...a little of that is what I have been doing.

This AAQI mini was supposed to be finished in February, but will count toward my March goal instead.  It just needs a little quilting and binding to be complete. 

Has anyone else made any Priority: Alzheimer Quilts this month?

{While checking the AAQI links for this blog post, I noticed that one of my quilts sold.  This is always exciting.  AAQI announces on Twitter when a quilt is sold...the reason I set up a Twitter account...by giving the quilt number, amount raised, thanking the maker of the quilt AND THE BUYER.  Thank you buyer of #6331!!!!}

Saturday was Sew Day for the OMQG.  Thanks to the creative genius of Michele and Julie, our members now receive an OMQG logo tote bag and cool name tag when they renew their membership.  So hard to believe our guild is starting its second year!

I had way too much fun chatting at Sew Day to get much done.

Somehow I did manage to make some boobs for Nina Lise's project.

Saying I am "making boobs" is quite the conversation starter ;-)

You should try it sometime...maybe at your next quilt gathering.

I made these boobs by using strips trimmed from off the sides of the Artist Palette quilt.  The instructions call for a light back fabric, and this is perfect as it already has a layer of batting.

I used blocks from  my orphan block basket, pinned them on top of the batting and followed the instructions provided on Mrs. Moen's Make a Boob blog.

I'd like to make some more before I put them in the mail to her.

Thanks for leaving me a comment on why you like blogging/blog reading.  I'm working on a power point presentation for our guild meeting discussing quilt blogs and Flickr, and it's interesting to hear how others view the topic.  

The random number generator (my daughter who picked a number between 1 and 14) chose lucky number 13 to receive the Red Centre pattern.  Mary on Lake Pulaski (we had 3 Mary's comment), it's headed your way.

Have an amazing day!!!!

Little Projects

There is only so much quilting I can do at one sitting.  I still prefer piecing to quilting, but I'm sticking with the quilting...even if it kills me.  The entire time I am quilting, thoughts of new projects and ideas fill my head.   It is very distracting ;-)

My Bernina for quilting

You would think I was my daughter trying to avoid homework ;-)  

I rearranged my studio....AGAIN!  

I ordered my Christmas cards...had to figure out a Plan B since my oldest did not make it home for Thanksgiving...hence no recent family photo

Change of address cards were designed and printed...took longer than necessary with my limited PhotoShop experience and printer issues

A trip to JoAnns was necessary to use the 50% off coupon....bought a HUGE bolt of batting.

In between all this some quilts were quilted....partially.

My Janome for piecing.

I moved my Janome into my studio as well.  This way I can easily work on a smaller project when taking breaks from quilting.  Usually my Janome is either in its travel bag, on the kitchen table or on a desk in the laundry room.

This scarf was one of those little projects.  I used a tutorial I printed a while back.  (I'll try and figure out where it's from and post the link.)  This is a quick and easy scarf to make.

The front is made from scraps.  The background fabric is leftover Moda Grunge from Basic Grey that I used in "Quilt #1".  I love this fabric!!!  I need more!  The red is Plume; the green is Nest, and I can't remember the middle fabric's name.

The pattern called for flannel backing, but I used this really soft corduroy I found at my LQS on Black Friday.  I think it is a nice touch.  I tried it on, and it feels warm and cozy!

That's two now from my list I never thought I'd get to ;-)  Not bad.

Have an amazing day!!!

Christmas Spirit

How did it get to be December already?!!!  

In two weeks, we'll be heading to Montana...I am so not ready!

Took from Selvage Blog ;-)


The weather here has turned chilly which is helping with the Christmas spirit.  It is hard to decorate, shop and listen to Christmas carols when the temperature hovers near the 90º mark!  I did some of all of that yesterday (decorate, shop, listen to Christmas music) and even found a little time to sew.

While dinner was in the oven, I played around with making a couple of coffee cuffs.  The above picture shows my first attempt.  I found some coordinated scraps and went to work.  When I finished sewing, I found the perfect button in my box.  The colors match and the "Go green" wording is very appropriate.

This brown and blue coffee cuff was purchased during Craft Hope for Haiti (I was a frequent shopper there).  I purchased two of them (can't find the other one) donated by Anna Michelle Quilts.  I keep this coffee cuff handy in my car for those much needed coffee pit stops ;-)

This black and white one is my favorite so far.  I used Anna Michelle's cuff as a guide for tracing my pattern, but as for the rest, I referred to Terri's tutorial.  Terri's instructions are very easy to follow, and  I whipped up two rather quickly.  For these two, I used fusible interfacing (that's what I had on hand), but don't think the cuffs are thick/sturdy enough.  Next time I will go with something "cushier".  Terri uses velcro for the closure; Anna Michelle used a button and an elastic loopy thing.  I don't have either, so will search them out at JoAnn's when I stock up on batting with my 50% off coupon!

How are you doing with your holiday decorating, shopping, crafting?


Have an amazing day!!!

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Sew & Tell Friday #35

It's our last day in Big Sky {boo hoo}.  The last few days here have been gorgeous!  Today,  I hope to hike to my favorite place...if there isn't too much snow.

I have another small finish for Sew and Tell this week.  I made a case for my iPad based on Quilt Dad's tutorial.  My supplies here are limited, so I made a few changes.  Instead of piecing the sleeve, I used this Paula Prass fabric.  It is too pretty to cut up.  I didn't have any batting so just used a solid fabric behind the printed fabric and zigzagged here and there.  I did use the Moda Snuggle fabric for the lining as the instructions suggested.

I added a button and closure so my iPad wouldn't slide out.  This "button" came in a little pouch of PJs I bought a while back.  I'm so glad I saved this little token.  I think it is really cute.  I used embroidery floss inside the three hearts to attach the token to the front.

Here is my setup on the deck for reading.  Love the cowboy wine glass but not crazy about needing the reading glasses ;-)

What did you finish this week?  Add it to Amy's blog.  While you are there see what others have been up to.  You will be inspired.

Have an amazing weekend!!!  I'll be heading back to Florida....and the heat.

Sew & Tell Friday #18

Happy Friday again!  These Sew and Tell Fridays make me realize how fast time goes by.  

Now, restrain yourself from getting too excited over the complicated project I am showing you.  I needed a little something for a last minute teacher's gift.  My daughter helped me make these bookmarks.

Here's the flip side.  Two will go to my daughter's teacher with a Barnes and Noble gift card.  I'm going to keep two on hand with the extra gift card I bought for when I forget a gift  emergencies.

Whew!  For a while there, I thought the bookmarks were all I had to share today.  But, I was able to find time to work on my Amish project.  I finished adding the aqua and black stripes since the last time.  The liberated part of the stripes was having different widths and a little bit of wavy going on.  I'm not sure about the red border, but it is what it is.

Part of the Liberated Amish Get Together's challenge was to add letters or numbers somewhere in the quilt.  After some pondering, I added the JMR since this is destined for Montana.  It's our "brand" for all things Montana.  It took me several tries to get the letters the way I wanted.  So now my top is complete.  Next I need to decide how to quilt it and what color to use for the binding.  Any suggestions?  Should I go with red again or another dark like the inner border?

Enjoy all the other Sew and Tell Friday posts.  Have an amazing weekend!!!

Attitude and Gratitude

Today I discovered that I had won an award!!  How cool is that?!  Dee nominated me for the Lemonade Stand Award.  Apparently, this is a highly sought out and coveted award bestowed upon bloggers that show great attitude and gratitude.  Thank you so much Dee!!

It is so nice to receive such recognition from a fellow blogger.  What makes receiving the Lemonade Stand Award really special is being nominated by someone as amazing as Dee.  If you are not already a regular follower of Dee's Doodles, you need to head over there as quick as you can (after you finish reading my blog..ha) to see what you've been missing.  I can not do her blog justice, so you'll just have to go see for yourself.

Now, I get to nominate ten blogs who I feel have great attitude and gratitude.  That is really difficult.  I feel that way about EVERY blog I follow.  I feel so blessed to have found this neighborhood of bloggers that I  consider friends.  Here are my nominees (in alphabetical order):

Amy of A Commonplace Life

Amy of Park City Girl

Anya of Hills Creek Quilter

Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio

Lesly of Pickle Dish

Nina Lise of Mrs. Moen

Sherri of A Quilting Life

Susan of Hanging on by a Needle and Thread

Thelma of Cupcakes 'n Daisies

Victoria of Bumble Beans

These are the rules of accepting the award.

Put the Lemonade logo on your blog or within your post.

Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.

Link the nominees within your post.

Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

I dedicate this award to my daughter who always asks to make a Lemonade Stand in the summers, but who is always told no!!!  My daughter made this ipod case for Craft Hope:

We made sure the iTouch fits inside, and the earphones can be connected through the button hole.

The first one she made was a little too wide, so she kept that one for herself.  I'm thinking these will be fun to make as gifts to have on hand.

Have an amazing day!!