I-Spy Quilt!

It's finished!  I got most of these squares through a swap hosted by Care at Obsessively Stitching.  I had so much fun choosing my fabrics to send in, and then browsing what I got back from the other participants.  I've had the top finished for a while now, but finally got it quilted and bound this week.  I wanted to get this done in time for fall, so I opted to do a really basic patchwork rather than any of the other really cool things people have done with their squares.  You can see some of them at the Flickr group.  I hand quilted it at each seam with a rainbow of pearl cotton, and the backing is from a pale yellow sheet.  I plan on this being used as a picnic blanket, car entertainment, fort building material, and other hard-living stuff, so I went simple.  I'm really pleased with it, even if it is a "double espresso for your eyes" as another swapper's husband described hers!

I'm adding this to QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday.  It's my first time participating, so if you found me through that link up, welcome!  Thanks for stopping by!

 

Belly Button Pillow

As lots of us crafty types do, I like to give hand made gifts for the holidays.  I have a list as long as my arm of plans and ideas, but very little actual work done!  I also have a couple of swaps going on, and some sewing I'm doing for my local animal shelter.  On Friday night the girls went to bed easily, hubby fell asleep early so we weren't able to catch up on our DVR'd shows and suddenly I found myself with the whole night ahead of me to sew without interruption!  So what did I do?  I started a completely new project, unrelated to any of the sewing I "need" to work on! 

Here's the new project and I am SO in love with it!

The tutorial is from Alexandra at a-squared(w) and I stumbled upon it while doing research for the Pillow Talk {Swap}.  I dug through the scrap bins for fall colors, cut it out and had it together in no time!  I stuffed it and closed it while watching football on Sunday and now it's in its place on the couch.  I really love it!  I needed a fun project like this to get my sewing mojo back, so thank you Alexandra!

I'm adding this to Amy's "Sew and Tell" for this week!

A quilt for the new kid on the block

My husband's brother and his wife welcomed their second child just over a week ago, and he is ridiculously cute (if I do say so myself).  A sweet boy needs a sweet quilt, so of course I had to oblige!  He was kind enough to arrive a few days past his due date so I had time to get the quilt completely finished before he was born.

It's a stacked quilt with straight line quilting (my standby... someday I'll branch out!).  The darker blue fabric has little fishies on it, which matches his nursery theme.  I love that fabric and I've had it in my stash since long before I started sewing.  Yes, I was building a stash before I knew what to do with it.  I think that must be high on the list of symptoms of a true fabric addict, don't you?

Friday Night Sew-In

Have you heard of the Friday Night Sew-In?  Once a month, Heidi at Handmade by Heidi and Bobbi at Crafty Vegas Mom sponsor a night for YOU to commit to put on your comfy PJs, tune out the world, and focus on sewing, knitting, or any other crafting you want to focus on for a night.  Everyone shares what they worked on and get this- You can win prizes!  This is my first time playing, and I'm already brewing ideas of what I want to work on.  So what are you doing on November 19?  Join us, won't you?

Happy Birthday to my Sweet Girl

Today is my daughter Lizzie's 3rd birthday.  Time flies when you're having fun, I can't believe she's three already.  She's sweet and hilariously funny and I am so lucky to be her mommy!

Born at home at 8:30am on her due date!  A very punctual gal.  Not sure where she got that trait...

Amy Butler's Reversible Everyday Shopper

Did you ever notice that when people post about meeting Amy Butler, they always comment on how tall she is?  Every year when all those lucky shop owners go to Quilt Market and share their wonderful pictures, there she is looking statuesque and glamorous.  So maybe that's why many of her bags are SO BIG!  I've made the Modern Diaper Bag and my 5 year old could sit inside!  I love this, because I like knowing the bags can take anything I throw at them.  So when I started cutting out the Reversible Everyday Shopper from the new Style Stitches book, I knew I was headed for another mega-bag.  Yes, I could have learned this by reading the measurements first, but doesn't that take away some of the fun?

This bag is destined to be a Christmas gift, but I won't say who it's for so it can still be a bit of a surprise!

Blogger's Quilt Festival!

This is my first entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I've followed along for the last few and all the entries are so inspiring! Since I'm still new to quilting, I'm going to share my very very first quilt, to remind myself how far I've come.

Here's the top:

And here it is "finished."

 The fabrics came from a charm square swap I did with friends- This was very early in my stash-building days!  In fact, I think this was one of the first ten things I ever sewed.  I used the "Make It Up As You Go Quilt" tutorial at You Can Make This.  It was super easy to follow and I was so happy with the top (still am!).    But then I kind of fell apart with the quilting and binding.  I used pre-made binding and I'm pretty sure I used it incorrectly.  I didn't baste nearly enough, so the quilting process was frustrating and I stopped with it very minimally quilted.  But I was still so proud, my girls love it, and one of these days I'll take off the yucky binding and do a proper one!  For now this one lives in the car where it's the perfect size for Allison to cuddle under on chilly morning drives to school.

Thanks for stopping by, be sure to check out the other (vastly more skillfully made!) entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival by clicking here.

Our Halloween Costumes!!!

I am so proud of the girls' Halloween costumes this year.  Allison was Astrid from "How to Train Your Dragon" and Lizzie was a dragon!  (Great movie!  Have you seen it?)

I probably should have made Lizzie's costume one size bigger, but for the few hours she wore it, it was fine.  She was in love with the sparkly blue fabric I found, and I think it looks like scales.  I was a little worried about using such a dark fabric again (after last year's poorly planned black cat costume- a little tough for drivers to see in the dark), but the sparkles made it reflective, so it worked out.  The pattern is Simplicity 2506.





Allison was so thrilled with her costume, and I actually got a huge hug and a "Thank you, Mom" when I gave her the last piece- the headband- so that made all the work worth it.  The top is adapted from the ModKid Nina pattern and I used the basic A-line skirt directions from Sew What Skirts.  I had a ton of fun with those spikes, and I find myself thinking of other ways to use screw-on embellishments!  They came from StudsandSpikes.com.

 

NaBloPoMo

KarrieLyne over at Freckled Whimsy posted today about NaBloPoMo.  I've really been wanting to post more, so I thought I'd give it a try!  There will be lots of Christmas sewing going on, so that will take care of some posts.  I still need to share the girls' Halloween costumes.  Going from 3-4 posts a month to posting every day will be a challenge, but it's one I'm up for!  See, I've already got day one taken care of! 

There are prizes, there's a community of bloggers with advice, encouragement, and great new blogs to discover!  I noticed a big list of crafting blogs, so I can't wait to go check them all out.

Are you up for the challenge?  Click on over!

Pillow Talk Swap!

After following this swap for a while and just absolutely DROOLING over the amazing creations, I've decided to dive in.  I hope I can keep up.  I seem to have loved every single pillow I've seen produced by this group, so I know my taste is right in line.  I just hope my skill level is!  Here's my inspiration mosaic to give my partner some ideas...

 

1. scandinavian touch in our garden, 2. Zig Zag Quilt - 2008, 3. Finished coin quilt top "Lemonade", 4. modern munki munki martian quilt, 5. munki munki starburst quilt, 6. Mod Square - Quilted Pillow Cover in Shades of Orange, 7. Block for ktelschow, 8. DSC_5172, 9. My Pillow !!!, 10. My wonderful Pillow, 11. My Beautiful Pillow, 12. P1000150, 13. PTS #3, 14. OOoohhh yeah.... baby!!  this swanky pillow is sOOooo MINE!!, 15. PTS 3, 16. That's the Ticket Pillow- a Moda Bakeshop Tutorial! :), 17. Fat Quarterly Quilt along- final layout, 18. Fat Quarterly quilt along top, 19. DQS9 Quilt - Done :)!!!!, 20. Finished Doll Quilt Swap 9