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. :)

Halloween Album

I started this Halloween mini album (8x8) last time I went to the Scrapbooking B&B (last year) and finished the last two pages this past time I went. :) I have decided to just pick one picture of my kids on Halloween and make a costume-themed scrapbook page and just stick it in this album, rather than creating a Halloween LO each year in their regular scrapbooks. :) I like this method and it's working for me. If you click on the pictures, they will enlarge to show some of the detail. The last two are my favorites. I have decided that I am going to pick the best picture of the kid from now on rather than trying to get a full-length shot like I did for the first couple pages in the album--makes for much better scrapbook pages! LOL! :) Thanks for looking and for any comments!

Scrapbooking Retreat

I went on a scrapbooking retreat at a B&B with some good friends a couple of weekends ago and I got a LOT done by my standards! :) This one was my fastest-completed page...took me about 10 minutes. The other ones required at least two hours of pondering. LOL! I used my trusty Dymo Label Buddy for the title (I think I used this on almost every project I completed this weekend--definitely a must-have tool!) and the quote was a rub-on from DCWV that I got a couple of years ago in a big stack of rub-on quotes. I only looked through like three pages of the book, found it, and made the decision to just go with it! I love the colors of this LO and the pictures make me smile. The center of the page includes some adhesive tape from Basic Grey and a couple of Making Memories rhinestones. I believe the blue patterned paper is by Doodlebug--I got it from my friend. :) Thanks for looking and for any comments!

Long-overdue pictures! :)

Quick shot of Gracie today...you can kind of see her "princess" hearing aids! :)

The "birthday girl" from a couple of weeks ago...she's SIX!!! She is laughing in this picture, probably because I told her not to laugh. That always gets her! LOL! :)

Ava at Gracie's birthday dinner. :)

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. :)

Bathroom Update

Just realized I never posted the "after" of our bathroom remodel. We gutted the entire thing down to the studs and changed the orientation so we had a bit more room. I am THRILLED with the way it turned out. :)

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. :)