Blush Baby Quilt

I made this little baby quilt after my friend Shannon had her second baby, a girl. :) I finished it a few weeks ago, but just gave it to her this morning, so it's safe to post on my blog now. I took a Blush charm pack from Basic Grey by Moda and separated out the browns and reds and then purchased yardage for the borders and binding. I quilted it minimally because I was running into puckering issues, but washing it concealed all manner of sins. :) Thanks for looking and any comments!

Pink & Brown Baby Quilt

I started this quilt months ago, but just finished it yesterday morning because I got to meet the new little baby yesterday. :) Nothing like waiting until the last minute! I think it turned out pretty cute...the fabrics are adorable. The binding isn't perfect, as usual, but didn't give me too many fits. I just quilted 1/4" in either side of the seams and it came together pretty quickly once I got going. I had time to wash and dry it and the finished size after shrinkage was 30X39, so not too bad for a car seat or play mat quilt. There is low-loft Warm & Natural batting and it's a good weight for spring and summer. Thanks for looking and for any comments! :)

Baby Blanket

My friends had a baby boy on Monday and I made this pieced blanket yesterday since I was going to see them at a New Year's party last night. I took a charm pack and sewed together three giant nine patch blocks and then cut them in half top to bottom and side to side, which left me with 12 smaller blocks (this is called a disappearing nine patch). I then sewed all of them together in a strip, bordered it with blue swirly fabric, and backed it with a cozy baby blue flannel, which I sewed first right sides together until it was almost closed, then turned it "inside out" (which really made the right side of the flannel show and the right side of the blanket top show) and then stitched a 1/4" border all around the edges to close it up and finish it off. That way I got to avoid binding it, which is (for me) the worst part of doing a quilt. Best of both worlds! :)

Baby Quilt

I made this baby quilt for my friends who are having their first baby--I gave it to the mom-to-be at her shower yesterday, so now it's safe to post on my blog. They didn't find out the gender, so I made it gender-neutral. I think it turned out pretty cute! :)

Ava's Napper Quilt

Because I apparently like to have a TON of unfinished quilts lying around my house, I started and finished this quilt top on Saturday. Ava will use it for her "napper" when she goes to daycare after preschool one day a week. :) I adore the fabrics, which I purchased from a great website--Hawthorne Threads. If you click on the bottom picture, it will enlarge and you can see a closer view of the fabrics. :)

Mini Quilt Decoration

Okay, so yesterday I attached the 3" wide white borders to the edges of Ava's big quilt and then I started procrastinating, looking at the Flickr picture group "Fresh Modern Quilts." I did a search for "mini quilts" and THIS and THIS came up, so I decided to procrastinate further on the big quilt and whip up a mini to decorate Ava's room. :)

The little quilt on the clothesline came from scraps that I cut off of the edges of the big one in order to square it up...I just sewed four of those little scraps together into long rows, pressed it, and cut it to size. I cut the dress, heart, birds, and sun rays freehand and used my Sizzix for the sun's circle. The sun, heart, dress, and tiny quilt were all attached to the aqua dotted material BEFORE quilting...when the mini quilt is washed, the edges will curl and fray up a bit, as in THIS example. This technique is called "Raw Edge Applique."

I used Michael Miller's Ta Dot Aqua for the backgound, Jenean Morrison's California Dreamin' for the mini quilt and heart, Kona White for the birds, Legacy Fresh Fusion "Spring Plaid" for the dress, and Keepsake Calico "Gold QBQ11" fabric for the sun.

The quilting includes a straight stitch about a 1/2" in along all of the outer edges, the clothesline, and the birds (I decided I needed some quilting up in that right-hand corner, so I added the birds last--I think it adds a cute touch), so the back is kind of a mess, but you aren't going to see that anyway! LOL! :) Now, all I have to do is bind it and then I am finished!

Anyway, thanks so much for looking and for any comments..I am pretty pleased with it and am so grateful for the very talented people who created my inspiration pieces. :)

Quilt Top Mostly Complete

I just need to add white and/or aqua borders to round it out to twin-sized. :) Yay! We primed Ava's room today--it's going to be a light aqua color and I can't wait to see everything finished. I will post pictures, of course. :)

Pillowcase Dress and Quilt in Progress

I made this dress a couple of weeks ago for Gracie. I bought enough fabric to make one for Ava and my niece as well and had delusions of making all three of them in a few hours. Haha. :) I DO think that the other two will not take me as long as the first one (ahem, two hours!) LOL! Of course, I also had to whip up the hair clip really quickly to go with it. :)


This is what I am working on today. I have to sew those strips that are lying on the table together (two more of each fabric) and then that set of blocks will be done once I press them and cut them. The third set of fabrics (nine strips of each) will come next and then I will be DONE with the blocks for Ava's "big girl bed" quilt. :)

Rejected Submission

Can't get into CARDS magazine to save my life. Made this for their "sewing" call for their September issue and the calls went out yesterday. Oh well. I used some new Making Memories Flutter patterned paper and used some scraps of Bazzill and SU! to round it out. I used a 1 1/4" square punch to punch out the bigger squares and then cut some of the squares in half for the alternating rows. Used my sewing machine for the "quilting." Thanks for looking and any comments. :)

I Have Crafting ADD

I think it might be this way with a lot of crafty people, but I can't just focus on one craft project at a time. I currently have two sewing projects going on right now and three more waiting for me. I discovered the wonders of Charm Packs (basically pre-cut fabric squares from an entire designer line of fabric) and have purchased five charm packs since then. I have started the sewing on only two of the projects so far. This one pictured is going to be a throw quilt for Gracie. I also have the top sewn for a quilted bed runner for my mother-in-law in yellows and blues. I have another charm pack waiting for a throw quilt for Ava as well as 16 fat quarters that I need to cut for a twin-sized quilt for Ava's big girl room in really fun, bright colors. I even made a mock-up in Photoshop on how I am going to place the squares for her twin quilt.

Why can't I just finish one project before moving on to the next one? I have always been this way and I just can't explain it. Oh well, as long as they get finished eventually! :) Back to this throw quilt for Gracie, all I have to do is join the nine rows together and add some off-white borders and the quilt top is finished. I think I am going to practice free-motion quilting on this little throw. I LOVE the look of free-motion quilting (stippling, in particular) and I haven't attempted it yet, but it will be quite an accomplishment if I can pull it off. I have been watching a ton of tutorials on YouTube (WONDERFUL resource--I have learned 95% of my quilting skills from YouTube!) and it doesn't look as complicated as I always thought it was.

Anyway, better wrap this up. Thanks so much for looking and, as always, thank you for any comments! :)

Another Quilt

Little brown-eyed assistant not included in gift. LOL! ;)

My friends had their baby (the ones who I made the little fox under the tree frame for) last week and she now is in the NICU for a diaphragmatic hernia--due to have surgery to repair the defect this week. I went to Hobby Lobby over the weekend and got the fabric to make this quilt. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. This one is also full of mistakes (especially on the binding), but the seams for the blocks lined up way better for this one than my doll quilt experiment from two weekends ago. :) I really love the fabrics (all from the same line except for the binding, which came from Wal-Mart).

Please pray and/or send out positive thoughts for baby Eva this week and through the next couple of months that her hernia is fixed easily and that she has no troubles with feeding and reflux.

As usual, thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

Crafty Things

As I said, DH was out of town this weekend and I got a bunch of crafty things done. :) The three pictures above are a Kindle clutch that I made for my Grammy. She got a Kindle for Christmas and I found a tutorial on YouTube that was pretty easy to follow. I had all of my scraps out anyway from my doll quilt project that I started on Saturday night (see below for finished picture). :)


This is the reason I had my sewing machine out in the first place. Gracie got this doll bed from Santa at Christmas and I have been seeing a bunch of quilts on Two Peas lately. I used scraps from the Rag Quilt that I made for my niece for Christmas two years ago along with one other fabric that I only had five little squares of. The squares started out at 4 3/8" by 4 3/8" and I used a 1/4" seam. The finished product is chock-full of errors, but Gracie likes it. I machine bound the quilt because I wasn't about to spend hours upon hours hand binding a quilt with really uneven seams. Oh well. I think it looks pretty cute overall. I whipped up the pillow cover this morning before I put my machine away. It's also full of errors, but Gracie will be excited (she hasn't seen it because she is in school). :)

Thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

ANOTHER QUILT! :) This one was for my MIL and was about 6 x 5 when finished. I started with 8.5 x 8.5 squares and it actually shrunk a little bit in the washer/dryer, so now the squares are about 6 inches square. It looks much better in person.


I made six heat/cold therapy neck rolls. You can microwave them or freeze them for various ailments. You can also warm one up and put it in your bed to warm up cold tootsies on cold winter nights! :) They feel heavenly. The pretty fabric is actually just a pillowcase that houses a muslin bag with the feed corn inside. There is a Velcro closure at the top of the pillowcase so you can remove it and wash it if necessary. The two-tone look was a happy accident, because the directions called for using two 24" long pieces of fabric and my fabric was only 21 inches long once the selvage was removed, so I added a 3" strip of the coordinating fabric and I think they look even nicer that way!

Here are some more of the cards that I made for my MIL, Mom, Grandma, and future SIL. As mentioned above, most of them were made from scraps and a lot of the pieces were already punched/cut/stamped, etc. and I just had to put them together in a pleasing manner. This brown "Thank You" card wasn't one of my favorites, but Sean liked it the best so I included it on here. :) The star is made by punching CS with the SU! small star punch, then centering the negative image in the large star punch and punching that out for the outline.

Another simple, easy card. The "Thinking of you" and flowers were already stamped and I just added the brads and the Almost Amethyst strip behind the focal point and adhered it to a Rose Red card base. The flowers are Rose Red, Old Olive, and Lavender Lace and the words and dividing lines are Basic Black. I just colored the stamp with markers before stamping.

A mini scrapbook that I decorated (the window in the cover and the ribbon/cord to tie it together) for Kristin and Adam (my BIL who just got engaged to his girlfriend). I thought she could put their engagement pictures in the album and therefore included a little tin of photo corners. Terrible picture, but you get the idea. I used SU! Shimmer Cardstock and brayered a bit of Bashful Blue ink onto the piece of cardstock I put in the window, stamped the ring (retired SU! Mini Mates), added the rhinestone "diamond," and used a $1 stamp set from Michaels for the "Happily Ever After" and "Going to the Chapel" stamp sets. She loved it! :)


A glitter re-inker ornament for us, with a key tag that I stamped with Karen Foster Snap Stamps for the date. I used a snowflake charm that I have had in my scrap stash for years and two circle punches for the white and red circles (Riding Hood Red). Some retired SU! cord and organza ribbon rounded out the effect. HERE is a great tutorial with pictures that shows you how to make a glitter re-inker ornament. I used SU! Old Olive Classic re-inker for the green, Pretty in Pink for the pink one, and Bashful Blue for the blue one.


Again, for Kristin. The ring stamp is the same $1.00 acrylic set from Michaels, added rhinestone and year with Karen Foster Snap Stamps. Green CS is Green Galore. I had the pink beads in my stash, I believe from a purse handle of Gracie's that broke.


For my in-laws. "2008" stamped in Night of Navy, CS also Night of Navy.

Crafty Things!

30 goody bags for Gracie's preschool class Christmas party that I stamped. The person who sent the pencils for the goody bags only sent 24 and there were 30 kids, so I made gingerbread man tags for the bags that didn't have a pencil tied on (Gracie got one of the pencil-less bags). We were able to scrounge up a "golden rule" pencil that hadn't been sharpened as well as two PBS Kids Sprout pencils that we got from the mall when Barney was there, so only three kids didn't get a Christmas pencil.



One of the four teacher's gifts I made...It's a stationery box filled with four notecards/envelopes that I stamped. I didn't have a chance to take pictures of the individual cards, but they were all different. I used one stamp set per teacher (Tagger's Dozen, Mini Messages, Tags So Much, and Event Full--all retired sets). They were white notecards (5.5 x 4.25) with one image in the upper center of each card...for example, on the pea stamp in Tags So Much, I colored the pea with an Old Olive marker and the sentiment with black marker before stamping, stamped it on the card, and then colored in the peas themselves with Certainly Celery marker. They were simple and cute. I also gave them an ornament to go along with the card set (not homemade).



Finally, I MADE A QUILT! :) I finally learned how to sew in the last month or so. I saw a bunch of cute pictures of rag quilts that people had been making on 2Peas and caught the bug. I had my mom sit down with me one night and she taught me the basics in about an hour and I was off and running....er, sewing. :)

This is for my niece Kyleigh and I chose pink and brown fabric because that's how my sister and BIL decorated her room. It's about 3x5 finished I would say...6.5 inch squares to start, 1/2 inch seam allowance. The backing fabric is that pink fabric that is all around the edge and chocolate brown flannel is in the center of each square. I am pretty proud of it. It is a Christmas gift, but I am posting it because I went to my sister's house the other day to take Christmas pictures of Kyleigh and she (my sister, that is) saw this picture on my camera. Oh well, at least it's a surprise to Kyleigh! :)