Texas Hill Country Quilt

One jelly roll of Cotton and Steel Basics, a bit of yardage, some time, a lot of deliberation, and a "few" stitches later...

You get a quilt that belongs in the Texas Hill Country! 

This one is being gifted to a wonderful family we have been friends with for a long time. And they just bought a "ranchette" a few minutes west of Austin. We just spent the weekend out there with them and seriously, "Ahhh, beautiful." is all that I can say.

The shadows highlighting the quilting from the back.  

Rattlesnake print backing. Appropriate, no? Stitches, and more stitches.

I opted for a medallion like quilt again on this one. 

One more picture.

Sloops

Sloop /slüp/ noun : a one-masted sailboat with a fore-and-aft mainsail and a jib.

About a year ago I started this project for my biggest little man. I designed and constructed it just for him from one of my all-time favorite fabric lines - Salt Air (by Cosmo Cricket for Moda). It fits his personality perfectly and he LOVES it. In fact, he's been loving it almost a year now. 

And it took a LOT of love for me to let him have it once it was complete. A queen-sized paper-pieced quilt in lovely fabrics... and he still occasionally has bedtime accidents. It's a good thing he's cute.

And it's about time I shared it on the blog. This seems to be the two hardest parts of quilting for me lately. Photos and journaling. Oh, and I'm sure you'll notice the fish pillow with clamshell pattern I made for him too. He jumps on it. Yes, I love him very much and he's very very cute. HA!

But back to the sloops. 

The paper-pieced little boats are offset to emphasize the equilateral triangle design and create continuous visual lines on the diagonal across the quilt.

And you can have one too if you like. Pattern here and here.

Christmas Treetopia

tree·to·pi·a

trē/ˈtōpēə/

noun

1. a state of things in which every tree is perfect. 

It finished at 62" x 62" of Christmas tree happiness. 

Available here and here. 

Modern Patchwork Christmas Tree Quilt Pattern

Sometimes I get so lucky.

Like today when the babies slept synchronously all day and I actually had time to do something. 

Like this.

Now available here. and here. 

Merry Christmas!! 

It's a little bit warm outside

but Christmas comes early for quilters.

Really early. 

It's awesome. 

The non-quilter world just doesn't understand. 

Like the In from the Cold fabric line by Kate Spain that made an appearance recently.

I've had this idea swimming in my head for a while. 

My very loving husband held the twinners for me so I could sew a bit here and there until it finished. 

Which reminds me... 

Parker Eli and Preston Emery haven't made their debut on this blog... oh, the sweet babies.

So much sweeter when they're sleeping too. hehe.

Back to the quilt... 

It's wall-hanging size.

I do plan on writing up a pattern for it in the very near future... just tell those little boys to go back to sleep. :)

I had a bit of fun with the quilting.

It had me singing Christmas songs again. 

I'm sure everyone around here really appreciated that part.

One more... 

Easter for you too.

Also now available for you too. :)

here. and here.

Lovey Giraffes Quilt Pattern

Whew, what a day. 

I can't wait to show you what's in my "fabric lab" right now. 

But it will have to wait until I finish it and get some energy up for pictures. 

And for those interested in getting their own lovey giraffe quilt...

Now available here and here.

Nite!

Easter! For me!

So the hubs and I were having a discussion about decorating seasonally around the house and I mentioned that after Valentine's it's pretty much time to decorate for Easter, then there's the flag decor holidays... blah, blah, blah... 

His response was that people don't decorate for Easter until April... 

What? 

Sometimes Easter is in March! 

Seriously, I don't know why he vocalizes his ideas. 

And sure enough, Easter comes March 31st this year.

HA! I win. 

And that's the most important thing in a marriage.

;) hehe.

Back to the point of this post.

I have some Easter decor for my house now!!!

Yay!

And that's where it's supposed to be... only on top of a table. 

The table has been ordered and is (hopefully) going to arrive in a week or so. 

Oh the joys of an empty new house and a serious deficiency of furniture... 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! 

I hope you have lots of quilting friends, friends you've made quilts for, and happy quilts (or at least fabric!) to make them feel extra loved today! 

xoxoxo

Crystal

***this image was actually taken from here (my photo of my quilt with a little text and photo filter).***

So nice.

Sharing that is. 

I love getting pictures from people of what they have made with my patterns. 

This one was particularly gorgeous and different in a non-Christmas finish so I thought I should share it with you.

The pattern is "Dash Away All" found here.

Feel free to go leave Brea, a new-to-quilting artist, some love in her Etsy shop. 

Something for a Saturday

Had to sew something today while I wait IMpatiently for my "Joy" fabric to arrive. 

I guess I could have taken a photo of it in progress, but that just ruins the surprise for you.

I'm not much of a secret keeper.

More of a bean spiller.

So I'll tell you it's a granny square pattern. 

Oh I so love those.

I had no idea they would be so fun to make.

Sew... back to the sewing of the day.

Decided to do this little project I've been leaving undone now for, well, 2.5 years? 3.5 years? 

Oh, I can't remember. 

It's the second half of a charm pack of Peace on Earth by 3 Sisters for Moda. 

This fabric line was an early love of mine for its Christmas but not-too-Christmas-to-be-left-out-all-year prints.

  

The backing and binding are the same red tone-on-tone floral.

Simple echo quilting straight down the runner.

This one is long and skinny. 

In the shop.

Frosted Quilt Pattern

Have you seen these?

I stumbled across them while searching for snowflake quilts making sure the name wasn't already taken. 

Amazing, huh?

Now available here.

Sooo sleepy. Must sleep. Now. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Fallen Leaves Quilt and Pattern

Have you seen this new line?

Lots of cuteness.

Applique table runner in Give Thanks by Deb Strain for Moda. 

Modernized leaves. 

Simple enough, no?

Some swirly quilting.

A little straight stitching too.

And done.

I LOVE applique. 

I know, you already knew that... : )

And, for your sewing pleasure, a pattern.

In the shop.

Rough Terrain

Now available at an Etsy shop near you...

Much Requested

It's finally available after many, many, many, many requests. :)

You can find it in the shop. 

P.S. I went to Quilt Festival this weekend, drug two (actually well-behaved) children in a double stroller through it, spent more than I should have, and definitely want to quilt my brains out now. Prepare yourselves for coming posts... hehe.

This is the story

of how I died... jk.

But it seems like it in the sewing part of my life!

Couple problems.

We moved - in and of itself not such a huge problem.

This little man learned to crawl and pull up to stand/cruise about a month ago - HUGE problem.

I now play slave to hovering over him to prevent unnecessary bruising (note right forehead damage in photo) and brain damage.

This exacerbates the first problem - STILL have not fully moved in. YIKES!

So sewing has been limited to the evenings and an occassional nap.

I'm sure he'll get some stability soon and all will be well again (with gates all over the place).

I should stop complaining, I really do feel like the luckiest mom the world to have him!

But... enough of those evenings have finally added up and I've completed a little project with the most delicious looking slice of fabric cake ever.

Ruby.

Couldn't you just eat it?

Or at least let the sewing machine and rotary cutter "eat" it...

I also made another in the fresh and popular grey and yellow color scheme.

I like them both for different reasons.

Both are also in the shop.

Pattern to come tomorrow.

Tracks in the Snow

From a distance the fabric actually doesn't look all that "Christmas-y" but it is BasicGrey's Jovial for Moda.

The idea behind this one is tire tread.

This concept will likely be a pattern for you soon.
Just have to iron out a few kinks.
Like the ridiculously non-standardized measurements.
I squared them up to 1/16th inch increments.
Odd, huh?

Runner is in the shop.

Countdown to Christmas

So, a little bit of a funny story which may or may not make you think I'm nuts.

I am, by the way.

I've had this quilt done since Friday.

I had the pillow done.

Well, almost.

I just needed a little more binding fabric.

The quilt shop that carries it was (of course) an hour away.

With two kids and people in town over the weekend that was impossible to accomplish.

Plus, my hubs works across the street from it 3 days/week so I couldn't justify the drive.

Well, I was nagging, nagging, whining, and nagging some more at my hubs.

It was driving me up the wall!

Finally (miraculously), he said he'd pick it up on his way home from work yesterday.

He didn't work there yesterday, so he actually drove 45 minutes out of his way to make his commute almost 2 hours just to get me ONE EIGHTH yard of the red dots fabric I needed one day sooner.

MAJOR brownie points.

In the world of quilting husbands - that makes him the BEST!

I really do love him. :)

It's 53" x 53" and the pillow is 18" x 18" - the quilt, pillow, and PATTERN (I know, seriously on top of this one) are in the shop!

I adore these fabrics. I am going to have to get some more and redo my stockings this year.

So, you'll probably see the ones I made last year and hung for a couple days listed in the shop too. :)

The matching pillow.

The whole stack.