Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Back from Never Never Land

Hello!  :)

So sorry I've been gone so long. I got kind of lazy after Thanksgiving. I do have some news though! My blogger buddy Donna from http://donnaslavendernest.blogspot.com/ chose me for the Liebster Blog Award.


It was a big surprise! I've never been nominated for a blog award before. Thanks so much Donna for thinking of me!  :)  Make sure you check out her awesome blog full of lavender loveliness!   :)

What is this award? I was wondering the same thing. This award is to showcase up and coming blogs with less than 200 followers. That is definitely me! (I'm hoping to hit 100 followers by the end of the year though . . . hope I make it!)

The rules are to copy and post the award on your blog. Thank the person who sent you the award and link back to their blog. Pick 5 blogs and leave them a comment.

My 5 picks are . . .

Amy at
Wendy at
Sharon at
Regena at
Janine at

I love my picks! They have great blogs that you need to check out! I always look forward to their posts to see what they have going on. They're awesome!  :)

I had a great Thanksgiving! I hope you did too! I whipped a Thanksgiving apron up for my sister Tammie so we would both have one to do our Thanksgiving cooking in . . .


Cute huh! (The aprons that is!) Please excuse my hair. I was having a bad hair day. :(  Here's a picture of my son Peter and Tammie.  :)


Pete has alopecia and always wears a hat. He loves his auntie!   :)  Next is a picture of Tammie, my Dad and me!  :)


And here's one of the hunky dude & I . . .


I didn't get any pictures of Tammie with her husband and kids. Oh well . . . next time. I really didn't do too much over the weekend. I did go to Joann's on Friday for some of the $1.49 per yard flannel. I wanted to get some to make some jammy pants for my kids for Christmas. It didn't look too crowded until I got back to the cutting table. There were tons of people. I got a number right away. I ended up waiting 2-1/2 hours to get my fabric cut. It sucked but I managed to get lucky and got a cart from a nice lady who didn't need it anymore. Then I shared my cart with another lady who had a few bolts in her arms. She was very thankful. I passed the time talking to the other crazy ladies all waiting to get our fabric cut. I actually ended up enjoying it . . . I must be nuts!  :)

Until Next Time . . .


Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!



Hope you are safe and happily together with those you love! I will be spending the holiday with my hunky dude, my son, my dad, my sister and her husband and kids. I wish my other two kids would be able to spend the holiday with us but they aren't able to this time. I also wish my mother was still here to spend it with us. This is going to be our first Thanksgiving without her. My dad, sister and I are all going to work together to make our Thanksgiving dinner and make mom proud! Dad's even getting out the good dishes.  :)  Here's to you and yours on this day of thanks! Have a good one!  :)

Until next time . . . 


Saturday, November 19, 2011

Friday Night Sew-In Results! :)

Hello!  :)

I hope you had a great Friday Night Sew-In . . . I did!  :)  I worked on more of the crayon roll-ups like I said I would. I had four more boxes of crayons left so I made four more roll-ups. Here they are all closed up . . .


I made two boy ones and two girl ones. I used the rest of the cowboy fabric I had on hand for the boy ones. I just love this fabric! :)  Here are the outside of the boy ones . . . 


Here's the inside of the boy ones . . .


I made the girl ones with some pink fabric I had on hand. I don't know how I missed this fabric when I made the other ones. It's so cute!  :)  I probably should have turned it so the pattern went the other way . . . oh well. Here's the outside of the girl ones . . . 


I used purple on the inside as I already had it cut from the other night when I made the other ones. Here's the inside of the girl ones . . .


They came together real quick and easy again. These are really fun! I had a nice relaxing Friday Night Sew-In. I hope you did too! Next month I'm sure I'll be working on finishing up some Christmas presents.  :)

Until next time . . .


Friday, November 18, 2011

Tonight's the Night!

For the next Friday Night Sew-In that is!


What will I be working on tonight? Well I though about working on some secret projects that I need to finish by the end of next week . . . but then I wouldn't be able to show them to you, and that wouldn't be any fun.  :)  Hmmmmm . . . I do have some crayons left from making those crayon roll-ups for boutique.


Maybe I should work on those. Yes! That's what I'll do! So tonight I will be making more crayon roll-ups. They're fun because they're quick and easy and I get to use some fabrics from my stash that I normally don't get to use.

Are you participating? What will you be working on? I hope you'll join me!

Until next time . . .


Saturday, November 12, 2011

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Hello!  :)

So Sorry I've been away. I was going to try to keep up with posting while I was getting ready for boutique but it just didn't happen. I did manage to get a lot of stuff done though. I'm actually quite amazed at how many things I finished in a week. This is going to be a long post . . . but hopefully one you'll enjoy!  :)  I'll start with the items that I had already started when I last posted.

Remember this . . .


It turned into this . . .


Isn't it adorable?!!! I'm really happy with the way it turned out!  :)  This runner was made by a pattern I got from Cleo And Me on Etsy. You should check out all her adorable patterns! They are really great patterns with easy to follow instructions. 

Here's the back of the runner . . . 


And a close-up on the fabric . . .


Isn't it adorable! I absolutely LOVE this fabric!!! It has glitter all over too. It's so festive! I got it at JoAnn's. I only had a little left so I had to go and get more to make more runners. I already made two runners and plan on making more. They only had a few yards left so of course I got all of them!  :)

Here's the finished Christmas Tree Mini Quilt. I wish the picture was better to show all the rich colors. I added red buttons since you last saw it. I was supposed to add some stringed lights too but I didn't think they looked good. Maybe it's because I used such rich deep fabrics. I made four of these . . .


Remember this stitchery . . .


It was the last stitchery in a set of seven for a banner. I had made two of each for two lap quilts. I actually made four of the snowman just because he was so cute!  :)  I planned on using the extra two for a couple of mini quilts. Here's the beginning of the mini quilts . . .


I loved the way it looked but it needed a border. I tried lots of different border fabrics and ended up with the same white polka dot that I used on the Christmas Tree Mini Quilts. It didn't distract from the other beautiful fabrics I used and I think it kind of looks like snow.  :)  I quilted it in the ditch and then added the light blue snowflake binding to finish it off. Here it is . . .


What do you think? It turned out pretty cute, huh?!!! I really like it! Here's the back . . .


I liked it so much that I made four of them. Yes I used the other two that I had planned on using for the lap quilt with the other stitcheries. I just couldn't help myself. I knew I wasn't going to have time to make the lap quilt for boutique. Then I got to looking at the other stitcheries and my stash of Christmas fabric . . . hummmm . . . 

I turned two of these . . . 


Into two of these . . .


Here's the back . . . 


And two of these . . .


Into two of these . . . 


Here's the back . . .


I stopped there. They were all made using the same design and quilted with the same in the ditch method. I wanted to keep it simple.  :)  I ended up with four Snowmen Mini Quilts, two Santa Mini Quilts, and two Christmas Tree Mini Quilts. I still have two each of 4 different stitcheries ready for the lap quilt I plan on making. I just have to stitch up 6 more stitcheries to replace the ones I used for the mini quilts. 

What else did I make for boutique? I made some crayon roll-ups. I used Angie from Summerfield Quilts, awesome Crayon Roll-Up Tutorial to make them. The tutorial is very easy to understand with lots of pictures. Thanks Angie for such a great tutorial!  :)  They were very simple and quick. I made 8 of them.

Here they are all rolled up . . . 


Here's the back of my favorite one . . . 


And the inside . . .


I had picked up the crayons during the back-to-school sales earlier this year just for this purpose. I even have more leftover. Guess I'll be making more in my future.  :)  

The night before I had to bring my things for boutique I had some extra time so I looked through my stash. I had some wine fabric and thought it would make a nice runner so I got busy putting it together. I didn't use any pattern. I basically made it up as I went along. I knew I wanted to keep it pretty simple. I also want to use some prairie points in it. I started with the wine fabric and then put some log cabin style strips around it. Then I put a border between the two blocks and at each end. I added the prairie points with the borders at the end. I was going to leave it there but it looked kind of skinny so I added the borders to the sides. 

Here it is . . . 


And the back . . . 


I didn't know whether I should turn both blocks the same way or not. I ended up facing them away from each other. I figured it would look great that way in the center of a table. What do you think? I kept the back and binding the same brown as the front to keep it simple. I wanted the focus to be on the wine fabric.

Here's a close up of one side of the runner . . .


And a closer view of the prairie points . . .


I kept the quilting simple by quilting next to the seams and around the prairie points. I couldn't believe how quickly the runner came together. I even had time to sew the binding to the back by hand. I was very happy with all I'd accomplished.

My boutique is in Quartz Hill, California, which is next to Lancaster, California. It's where I used to live before I moved to Corona a year and a half ago. I've been doing this boutique for the last 5 years and it's a really good one. If you are near there and want more information just ask. I went there Wednesday morning to bring my stuff and help set up. The boutique runs Thursday through Saturday. I will be there Saturday afternoon to work a shift and pick up my stuff when it's over. I hope I do well. The money I make will be used for Christmas presents. Wish me luck!  :)

Until Next Time . . .


Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Progress is good! :)

Hello!

How are you doing today? I'm doing pretty good.  :)  I've been making lots of progress! I love progress! I would love to share it with you!  :)

Here's what I was working on today . . .


Whatever could this be?  ;)  I'll let you stew on that for a few more days. I'll share more as I get further along. Sorry . . . I can't help myself.  ;)

I've gotten the last stitchery done for my Christmas Stitchery Mini Quilt. Actually I made 4 of them. I know I only made 2 of each of the others, but I really liked the snowman!  :)  I saw it and just knew I wanted to make another project (actually 2 of them) with just him!  :)


Isn't he cute?!!! I love snowmen!  :)


I've made more progress on my Christmas Tree Mini Quilts. I've got all 4 of them quilted. The quilting actually went pretty smooth. It's the first time I used different top and bottom thread colors. I was nervous but it worked. I didn't want to do too much quilting so I just outlined the tree levels and stitched on the red, right next to the white. Here's a close-up of the front quilted . . .


And a close-up of the back . . .


Here's the whole back, angled for a better view . . .


I couldn't really get a good picture of the quilting on the front. Oh well. Here's the whole front . . .


Did you notice I was able to get the binding on already too?! Tonight I'll be hand stitching down the last binding and then that part will be done. All that will be left will be the finishing details. Yes! There is more! I'm really liking how these are coming out!  :)  It's been really fun and didn't take too much fabric. The hardest part about the fabric was finding a variety of greens. Oh . . . and don't you just love the border and backing fabric? I love it! The reds are so deep and beautiful!  :)

Tomorrow will be the only 1 week left until boutique mark. Yes I'm behind . . . but I'm making good progress.  :)  It hasn't helped that my son's sick this week and I spent 3 hours at the doctors with him today. However now he's all stocked up on meds and should be getting better everyday. That's the important thing!  :)

Until next time . . .


Saturday, November 5, 2011

Christmas is coming . . .

. . . and so is the boutique I'm in!  :)

Hello!  :)

I've only got a couple of weeks until the boutique I'm in to get ready . . . eeekkkkk!!!

I'm a major procrastinator so being so far behind is nothing new to me. From now until boutique, everything I make will be for it. Everything else, including Christmas gifts and things for me will have to wait. Luckily I do have some inventory leftover from last year and a spring boutique I did. I also have a few things I made a few months ago. Now I need to make all I can as quickly as I can. I can do it! I can do it! I can't can do it! (At least that's what I keep telling myself!)

The first project I'm working on is from this magazine . . .


Here it is . . .


It says it's "quick in a night" and it pretty much is. I say 'pretty much' because I'm making 4 of them.  :)  I got them all cut out . . .


And pieced them all together. Now the mini quilts are ready to baste . . .


All 4 are layered, pinned and ready to quilt . . .


I got all that done in two afternoons. I even got the binding made and ready to go. I'm hoping to quilt them soon so I can start on the next project.  :)  I'm still not too comfortable with the quilting process. I hope it goes well. I can't wait to see how they turn out. Stay tuned!  :)

Until next time . . .