Rough Terrain

Now available at an Etsy shop near you...

A gift and another advent calendar

My very wonderful awesome friend had a baby boy about a month ago and it took me (sadly) this long to get her a present... 

and of course I had to make it. :) 

I was thinking of the Thimble blossoms "Swoon" block but my internet was down and I couldn't get it... 

Never to be slowed in the groove, this is what I came up with in the heat of the moment. 

I found it surprisingly similar from memory. 

But this minkee fabric for the backing!! 

I about died when I spotted this at quilt market and HAD to have it just for this purpose. 

Quilting it was dreamy too. 

Love. 

It very much made me want to keep it.

I hope she liked it just as much!

I also had a request for a custom advent calendar with loops and buttons. 

I really liked how it turned out so I thought I'd share. 

I love it when others give me more ideas!! 

And I HAD to post this photo of my darling husband who was ever so willing to help me take a picture of it tonight.

You'd never know from the picture that he really didn't act how his expression implies he should have!

You definitely can't think of having a merry Christmas with that Scrooge face looking at 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.

Halloween 2011 Costumes

After much sewing, more sewing, shopping, sewing, painting, and more sewing...

The costumes for this year's Halloween:

Jolly Holiday Mary Poppins and Bert.

The dress with added ruffled lace trim and satin ribbon. Dreamy.

(oh yes, I used bridal lace. I thought the lady cutting it was going to die when she heard I was making a Halloween costume out of it.)

The hat with flowers and tulle.

The 4 layers of skirt with ruffled lace trim and lots of little satin bows.

Bert with straw hat, painted (by me) suit coat, and bright blue bow tie.

The bamboo cane, of course. 

Little suit pants and the all important blue socks. 

My husband thought the socks were too much. 

I thought he should have thanked me for not getting him white shoes. 

HAHA!

And one last walking photo, just for good measure.

That kid is so happy it makes me happy just to think about him. :)

Rapunzel Costume

Made a Rapunzel costume.

"My flower" is modelling it for me.

Used eyelets for the lacing holes in the faux corset.

 The back with invisible zipper closure. 

The front lacing, lace, and ribbon embellished sleeves. 

I think the sleeves were the biggest "pain" to making this costume.

The whole front.

I love the light and dark purple combo. 

I also need to convince my daughter that purple is her color. 

I like her in it better than pink. 

Unfortunately, the current order of her favorite colors goes: 

1 - pink

2 - purple

3 - purple-y pink

Wow, I would never have guessed that my girl would, well, be a girly girl. 

Too bad for her that this costume is for one of her best friends (who I made Minnie Mouse last year). 

She's been wearing it all morning and quoting scenes from Tangled and making me be the wicked Mother (why do i have to be the bad one?) and dad be Eugene. :)

Some beautiful Terrain

This fabric line - Terrain by Kate Spain for Moda- was instant love. 

I could gush about the colors for days. 

I mean, look at that orange. 

I'm not sure I've ever met an orange I didn't like. 

And with the perfect purples, pinks, and teals... 

A recipe for quilting happiness for sure.

You should try to get this joyous fabric while you can! 

I hear it's going fast. 

A while back I got this lovely from a wonderfully nice man and then bought some more to make this very pokey zigzag quilt:

It's in the shop.

Modern Swirly Pillows

Okay, still a pathetic title.
But I have brain fog.
I got the boy's ear infections too.
Not complaining though because it means that dad has to take care of me and the kiddos and I get to sew. HAHAHAHA!
So, where was I?
Oh yes, those pillows.
Made these out of scraps from this quilt.
Swirly quilting and straight quilting.
Very fun, modern, and cheerful.

In the shop.

Hometown 2 (my titles are so creative)

Pictures as promised, a lap quilt in Hometown by Sweetwater for Moda.

I went for the off centered square in a square in a square block and enjoyed reading each and every "hometown" on those awesome fabrics. 

I found soooo many I had been to, a few that I would like to go to, and some that I had no idea where they were.

I've never had to read and quilt at the same time before. 

Oh, and Houston was on there TWICE.  :)

Available in the shop.

Home Sweet Home

Pathetic at sewing and blogging lately. 

I have lots of excuses as usual. Ear infections, messy house, laundry, gymnastics classes, etc. 

Maybe I'll get around to correcting some of those "problems" later... maybe.

On to the good stuff.

It's "Hometown" good!

Some raw edge applique letters... always a favorite of mine.

Plus, it 

Some little paper pieced houses... a new favorite. 

Always fun to try something different. 

I actually enjoyed it. 

What am I saying? 

Of course I enjoyed it. :)

In the shop. (as usual.)

I have more to show you soon. 

A lap quilt, coasters, a charity quilt, advent calendars, baby quilt... the list is forEVER long so we'll see how long it takes to get them all done. 

I know I can't be the only one who does this. 

And it's an endless game too. 

I bought another jelly roll, bali pop, and some other fun stuff yesterday at my LQS. 

Never a dull quilting moment. :)

Meadow Friends

So, trying to sew while the little guy is awake is getting almost comical.

This is not supposed to be how this toy functions.

But the little man doesn't really care how things are supposed to function.

He is only interested in getting as high as he can and maximizing the danger factor of a given object.

This is the point at which the camera went flying to the side and I raced to catch the impending crash!

So, what did manage to get finished today - Baby Quilt in Meadow Friends by Deb Strain for Moda.

Great fabric collection - lots of rich colors and adorable little frogs, lizards, hummingbirds, and well, meadow friends :)

It's even named properly.

In the shop.

Happy Halloween!

Got a few things done this week and a few more in progress. A few table toppers and a bunting in Trick or Treat by Deb Strain for Moda. I quilted these in non-parallel straight lines for a spiderweb effect.

Not the best picture - but it made me smile back at it. :)

I love the quilting for these. Even the husband liked it! WOOHOO!

Patchwork bunting.

Very fun and a really quick project.

I recommend it!

These are in the shop too.

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.

Little Apples

First, a little story.

Yesterday while I sat sewing, my 3 year old was playing with her little VTech toy that has a keyboard. She typed in "MODA" and then said, "Mommy, I typed the word Moda because I love them."

I asked her why she loved Moda.

Her response, "They are nice and send you all the pretty fabric."

HAHAHAHAHA!

So, not only does my 3 year old know how to spell "Moda" but she also loves them for sending me pretty fabric!

Brainwashing = SUCCESS!!!

Now if only they would send it for free. ;)

On to the quilt de jour...

I love the little drawings in Aneela Hooey's new Little Apples for Moda fabric line.

These little images DEMANDED to be fussy cut and framed.

Okay, maybe that's a bit much.

But they did politely ask me to do so.

I obliged them.

This line definitely has some fall flair to it.

The quilt is baby sized at about 36" x 36" and is in the shop.

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.

Etchings

I was just wanting to play with these fabrics (Etchings by 3 Sisters for Moda) and thought up a little table topper for it.

This fabric line has some awesome achitectural drawing prints that will be fun to buy in yardage when they are available in stores.

Of course their floral designs are exquisite as always.

This one is also in the shop.

Christmas in July isn't over yet!

Christmas in July is definitely a quilting thing.
My husband just doesn't understand.
I walk around humming and sometimes singing LOUDLY all sorts of Christmas songs.
All the new Christmas fabrics are hitting the stores with projects to do.
And because it's only July I buy TONS of it knowing that I'll have plenty of time to make things. **insert sarcastic laughter here**
This idea was born a few weeks ago and after spending half a day drawing and coloring (with the help of my 3 year old - she really colored a lot of it for me) I had a pseudo-pattern ready to go.
Then I just had to execute the plan.
And I really really liked the results.

This one is a Stylized Christmas Tree Wall Hanging in 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain for Moda and it's in the shop.