Baby Quilt

I made this quilt when I was pregnant with my fourth child, who turned out to be a boy. That's okay, I thought. I'll just save it for the next one. Well, I got three boys in a row after that one. So here it sits at my house, apparently never to be used. I love it. It's too little for my big girls (who are now 13 and 8), so I guess it will have to be for my first granddaughter -- if it hasn't turned to dust by then. Then center is just a panel. The border is pieced. I hand-quilted it. I think it's about 36" X 45".

We call it "Baby Regan's Quilt," because that was going to be the name of our next girl if we ever got one.

Here is a close-up of the fabric and stitching detail.

You can see the stitching better on the back. The green is actually a little pinstripe, but you can't see that detail very well. Apparently I need to take a photography class just so I can blog. I drew the curlicues on the front in pencil and then hand-stitched them -- finishing with a French knot in the center of the curls.

Polka Dot Quilt

This is a quilt by Piece O Cake Designs. I love their stuff, and I ADORE this quilt. I have been coveting it for a number of years and gathering polka dots to go in it. I'm hoping to start it soon, but I anticipate finishing it years from now. Maybe if I put it on the blog, I will be accountable to someone and be motivated to get some of it done. I can at least find all those paper piecing things I photocopied. Now, I have never done any paper piecing before in all these years, so I'm excited to give it a shot.

I'll give you a current projects list as well, although, it cannot be complete, because the bins in my garage hold numerous works in progress. I will just list the ones I am actively working on.

*A cryptic reference to one I am giving as a gift and therefore cannot say more. If I showed it here, the recipient would know who it was for, I think. I guess you can see it after Christmas. *A king size quilt for my bed using Benartex's City Girl fabrics in pink chocolates. Yummy! *Pink and green applique quilt for my girls' bed -- pinned and ready to quilt. *Pink and brown Ohio star that I started forever ago and have recently unearthed. It's reminding me how much I love scrap quilts. *Seaside Rose (by Moda) hourglass quilt *Simplicity (by Moda) sawtooth stars quilt from one of my previous posts *Blue, pink, burgundy, green, yellow appliqued and pieced quilt -- one more strip of applique left to do. *Hand quilting the patriotic star quilt from an earlier post

This is just the quilting project list, but I'm already tired from just making the list. So fun, though! Cardwise, I have a birthday gift to make for my dear friend, whose birthday is tomorrow, and I am still working on the box of cards for a Christmas gift. I also have scrapbook night this Friday at my house, and then next Wednesday is card swap for which I have to make 2 sets of 12 cards and for which I have made 0 cards so far. It's only Monday. I can do it, although I may have to make the cards at scrapbook night.

Ooh, I just keep looking at that polka dot quilt and loving it! Maybe I'll start it tomorrow. I can't today, because I have so much transcribing to do, but I'll try to sneak some in tomorrow maybe.

I know I should stick to what is already in progress, but what fun would that be?

A Whole Bunch of Images

So I decided to make a box of a whole bunch of cards to give as a gift. I was feeling rather daunted, because I wanted them to be unique -- no more than two of each -- and it's a rather large box. Anyway, so one day I just started stamping some images, and I ended up with this. I colored the snail and fish images with markers. I will slowly turn them into actual cards. Some of them have already been put to use, but I haven't taken photos yet.

Oh, wait, I lied. Here's one of the butterflies.

Then I made another butterfly card, because one just isn't enough. Both of these are made with PaperTrey Ink's Butterfly Kisses Stamp Set.

I guess I just wanted to show one way of making a lot of cards a little more quickly. I am finding it easier to have the images already done, and then I can just put the papers together when I'm ready. That way the card is half done. The way I store my stamps and ink is just in a big (well, medium-sized) bin right now, so I suppose for me it's a pain to get all the stamps and ink out. This way, I get it all out once, and then I have images for 30 cards ready to go. I'm sure some of you who like to make cards one at a time and make them individualized will not like this method, and that's okay. I don't do this as a general rule, but when you're trying to make a hundred cards for one person in a relatively short time frame, I'm finding it very helpful. Happy creating!

Ladybug Crib Set

Here is the crib bedding set I made for my sister's first baby girl -- bumper pads, headboard, quilt and dust ruffle (white with black polka dots). There is some pink satin as well as pink chenille in the main part of the quilt.

Pink chenille ric-rac is across the middle of the head board. The side border of the headboard is gathered on both sides to give a rouching effect.

Just a close-up of the center of the quilt. What is fun about a random quilt like this is that you can use some of your scraps if you have them. I really only had two little scraps of the pink satin, but that was just enough to give it some interest.

Not feeling really chatty today. Don't know what that's about.

Pocket Card with Matching Bookmark

So, apparently all my pictures are doomed to be blurry. I never knew I was such a horrible photographer, but this blog is making certain that I know it. Bad photos aside, I am feeling very pleased with my little self. Brandon's friend has a birthday party tomorrow, and this little ensemble is for him.

Next is the inside -- a little pocket that I sewed on to hold the matching bookmark and the gift card. Brandon said the only thing he knows about this friend is that he reads constantly, so I thought a bookmark would be good.

A gift card to Barnes & Noble would have been better, but it is considerably farther away that Target is, and I didn't really have time to go today (plus, running lots of errands with three little boys in tow is not my favorite thing). Hey, they have books at Target, right? And they're even less expensive than the ones at B&N. So, yeah, I'm rationalizing. There's not even a Barnes & Noble in Mansfield. I have to drive 20 to 25 minutes for one. Target is 15. Okay, yeah, I'm whining about being near nothing, and my friend Cheryl is really in the boonies. It probably takes her 40 minutes to get to Barnes & Noble. It probably takes her almost that long to get to my house too, and yet she still comes to quilting very faithfully (and so does Kim, who is her neighbor). You ladies ROCK!

I know that handmade cards are naturally a little girlie, but I hope I achieved sufficient masculinity for a 12-year-old boy.

I am so impressed with how matchy everything is. This is my first pocket card, and I am feeling so proud of myself that I just had to post it tonight. I just finished it like 10 minutes ago. It's 11:15, but I'm still waiting for Morgan to get home from babysitting and Michael to get home from watching the BYU game. Have a great night!

Dandelion Girl

I can't tell you what I love about this fabric line. It is not my usual fare. I love bright colors -- reds, pinks, browns, greens. I don't usually go in for these muted colors, but I just absolutely love this line -- even the blues, (and if you don't know it already, I am not a blue person. I don't hate it, but I don't gravitate toward it either.) Anyway, you can check out the whole line at Hancock's of Paducah, and you can drool over it with me. Abby, from A Feathered Nest, was talking about how much she loved Michael Miller's Farmer's Market fabric line and that her children would have to eat grass for a while when it came out just so she could buy some. I won't go quite that far, but I do relate to how she feels, because I am just loving this fabric (and at this point, my children WOULD have to eat grass if I bought some).

My three quilts

These are the three quilts that hang over my various couches that my children use to snuggle under while watching TV. They don't remotely match each other, nor do they match any of my furniture. It doesn't really matter, though. They still keep us warm, and they're soft -- which my children vow is the most important thing. The first is a Wrapping Paper quilt from the Chez Moi fabric and some Moda chenille. I machine quilted it with various stitches on my regular, old, non-quilting machine.

Next is my Raggy Roses quilt. I used the leftover scraps of my Paris Flea Market (3 Sisters for Moda) fabric to make the roses, just put on regular, unbleached muslin. I machine appliqued the layers, leaving the unfinished edges so that I could get the raggy look. I washed and dried this quilt twice. It will get more raggedy as I wash it more often.

This last one is a quilt that was designed by Peggy Waltman (Hopskotch Designs). Truthfully, I just saw it in an ad in a quilt magazine and figured out the design myself, so it may not be exact. The flowers ended up to be more star-shaped than flower-shaped, and I think the green appliqued edge was supposed to be more rounded than triangular to match the flowers. I'm not great at applique. I'm still learning, so I didn't do so hot on getting it perfect. I do love the colors, though. I had gone through a green/red/yellow phase for a while there. I pieced this a long time ago, but it took me till just a few months ago to finish quilting it. The right-hand side shows the back -- a black and white floral. I didn't have quite enough of that piece (it was given to me by a friend), so I put a strip of red along the two opposite sides to make it fit the front. I'm afraid I do that alot, because when I buy fabric, I don't always have a plan for it.

Peggy Waltman says that the quilting design is as important as the design of the overall quilt and to not be afraid to make your quilting fun too. So for this one I did A LOT of quilting -- A LOT. I echo-quilted the flowers. However, I changed thread colors for each layer of the applique to match the color of the fabric. Hence, the back is sort of a kaleidoscope of color. On the white/black flower border, I echo-quilted the green zig-zag edging.