Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle

Hello!  :)

What would you choose if you got the chance to choose a "Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle" for the Fat Quarter Shop? Here's what I would choose . . .

Listed from left to right, top to bottom . . .
  1.  Aqua Red Aqua Ta Dot by Michael Miller Fabrics
  2.  Lilac Rose Batiks Seamist Watercolors by Hoffman Fabrics
  3.  Ruby Cotton Aqua Quirky by Bonnie & Camille for Moda Fabrics
  4.  Sophie Cream Petal by Chez Moi for Moda Fabrics
  5.  Sophie Blue Fiesta Houndstooth by Chez Moi for Moda Fabrics
  6.  Folk Heart Red Simple Flowers and Hearts by Rosalie Quinlan for Lecien Fabrics
  7.  Flower Sugar White Rose Dots by Lecien Fabrics
  8.  Aqua Red Cherry Tiny Gingham by Michael Miller Fabrics
  9.  Primrose Tonga Batiks Pink Scribble Floral by Timeless Treasures Fabrics
10.  Sophie Blue Fiesta Leaf by Chez Moi for Moda Fabrics
11.  Ruby Cotton Sherbet Sublime by Bonnie & Camille for Moda Fabrics
12.  Butterscotch & Roses Frosting rose Acorn Mosaic by Fig Tree Quilts for Moda Fabrics
13.  Bella Solids Aqua by Moda Fabrics
14.  Bella Solids Betty's Red by Moda Fabrics
15.  Bella Solids Bubble Gum by Moda Fabrics

Laura at Quokka Quilts is giving everyone a chance to design your very own Blogger's Choice Fabric Bundle. If you win you will get your choice of 15 fabrics (12 prints and 3 solids) courtesy of Kimberly at the Fat Quarter Shop. How awesome is that?!!! Go to Quokka Quilts for all the details.

What do you think of my choices? Would you purchase this set? Wish me luck!  :)

Until next time . . .

Merry Christmas Wishes to You!

Hello!  :)

Whew!!!! I've been soooo busy! This past week I've barely got any sleep. The hunky dude gets up for work at 3:15am and this week I've still been up working from the night before when he gets up. He couldn't believe it. Then I'd go to bed and get a few hours rest and get back to work. How in the world did I think I was going to complete two twin size quilts in only a few weeks. Especially being that these are only the 2nd and 3rd quilt tops I've completed and will be the 1st and 2nd that I've quilted and bound. I must be crazy dedicated. I have made some runners and mini quilts but nothing larger. I wish this guy could have worked some magic and got them all done for me.  ;)

But alas . . . no such luck! Remember Jay's quilt . . . the Hawaiian Getaway?

Well I've been working non-stop hand-quilting it (for the first time ever!). I finally got it done and then had to get it trimmed and put the binding on. I managed to finish it on the morning of the 22nd. Yea!!!!! I really loved how it turned out. I will have to show you the pictures next week as Jay is sitting close to me as I write this and I don't want him to see it yet.

What about the Peace and Love quilt?

It's pin basted and . . . that's it! I failed! There was no way I could get it done. I decided on the 21st that I wasn't going to make it. You see Jay and Jess were going to arrive at noon on the 23rd. And I had put everything on hold trying to get these quilts done. I hadn't finished decorating yet. I hadn't finished shopping yet. Then there was all the wrapping. I was so far behind! After the Hawaiian quilt was finished I finished up my Christmas shopping. When I arrived home I relinquished the decorating to my son Peter who was eager to put his own touch on things. It was hard for me as I always have to control things like that (yes I'm a control freak . . . I'll admit it!) He actually did a great job and was so proud of himself. He is 16 and autistic. It gave me joy to watch him.  :)  I will share some of my favorite items with you next week.

I stayed up late again and got all the gifts wrapped and ready to go. I wrapped up Jess' quilt, pins and all. She will get to see it and then I'll need her to leave it behind so I can finish it up. I hope she understands. A funny thing happened today. I was talking with her and she asked me to make her a quilt. She described what she wanted and it was as though she had already seen what I had made. It sounds like it's perfect and that she'll love it! I hope so!  :)

After I wrapped all the presents. I left them piled up so Peter could put them around the tree the next morning. When he saw the pile he was so excited and happily placed them around the tree.  :)

Now we're ready for the other two members of our family to arrive and start our Christmas 2011 celebration. Jay and Jess arrived at noon today. We visited and baked and watched Christmas movies. Tomorrow we go to my dad's house to celebrate with him and my sister and her family. Then Christmas morning we will open gifts, have a big breakfast and have to say good-bye to Jay and Jess once again. It's great having them here with us and I will miss them when they go back home.  :(

Hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful Christmas together!  :)

Until next time . . .

Snowman Mini Quilt GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!

Hello!  :)

The time has come! Did you have fun checking out all the awesome blogs and giveaways through the Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways . . .

And the Giveaway Day 2011?

I sure did! I already won something too! Check it out here.

Before I announce the winner of the Snowman Mini Quilt . . .

I want to thank all of you who stopped by, commented, and shared your favorite way to celebrate Christmas with me! I really enjoyed reading all your comments!  :)  There were 305 comments left! Wow! I feel so honored!  :) I also have 197 followers now! Many of you found me and followed me thanks to these giveaways! I welcome you all! I'm glad to have you here! I was hoping to reach 100 followers and I totally surpassed that! I'll be having a giveaway next month to celebrate reaching 100 followers . . . be sure to stop by and enter. AND if I reach 200 followers by the end of December I will celebrate by giving away two prizes in January! Only 3 more followers to go! :)

I know . . . I know . . . I know . . . You want to know who won this time! Okay . . . here it goes . . . with the help of the random number generator . . .

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:78Powered by RANDOM.ORG

(Note: When this post is in draft form the random number generator shows Min: 1, Max: 305. When it's posted it disappears. Sorry. I have no idea why it's doing this.)

Kathy H said... 78

We always read the night before Christmas on Christmas eve.

December 12, 2011 9:46 AM 

Kathy H is the winner of the Snowman Mini Quilt!!! Congratulations Kathy!!! I will be emailing you shortly. Please send me your address so I can get this quilt mailed out to you.  :)

Until next time . . .

Friday Night Sew-In Results!

Hello!  :)

I had a very successful Friday Night Sew-In last night! I hope you did too! Before I show you what I did I want to share some awesomeness with you! I checked my email this morning and it turns out that I won another giveaway! Must be my lucky month!  :)  Kathy from "It's Only Natural" was having a giveaway as part of Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day 2011. I won 3 fabulous prizes! Here they are . . .

The first is a group of 6 fat quarters of Dream On by Urban Chicks of Moda! So Yummy!  :)

The second is a Charm Pack of Cape Ann of Oliver + S! So Adorable!  :)

And the third is a Charm Pack of Soiree by Lilla Tueller of Moda! Lovely!  :)  I can't wait to see them all in person! I'm such a lucky girl! Merry Christmas to me!  :)

Do you remember me telling you that I'm making quilts for my two older kids for Christmas? I finished Jay's quilt top the other day and showed it to you here. I started Jessie's quilt on Wednesday. She loves bright lime green. She also loves the whole 60's & 70's vibe. So that is my theme for her . . . lime green with vintage sheets from the 60's & 70's and peace and love. I'm going to call it "Remembering Peace & Love".  :)  Here are the fabrics I'm using for the quilt, all cut and ready to go. All the fabrics are sheets.

I'm not following a pattern for this one. I made a rough drawing of the quilt before I started but then basically made it up as I went along. I laid out all the squares to figure out the placement. There are going to be flowers appliqued to the green squares.

Then I numbered them and stacked them.

I didn't take pictures of the next few steps (bad blogger!). I traced and cut out flowers and centers from the same sheets I used for the blocks. I then ironed them onto the green squares.

On Thursday I machine zig-zag stitched around the flowers and centers. I am going to be hand-quilting this quilt but I went ahead and used the machine to stitch around the flowers to save time.

At this point I had to lay them all out again to figure out placement of the flower squares. It would have been much easier if I had done the flowers first and figured out the placement all at once instead of twice but I didn't think of that until I it was too late.  :(

Once the placement was set I numbered the green squares again and stacked all of them up ready for sewing.

I forgot to take pictures (again) of the next few steps. I sewed all the blocks together then laid the quilt out. There was a problem . . . it was way too small! I would be adding borders but they would have had to be really big borders and that just wouldn't do. I was really frustrated! I was trying to get this done quickly and it just wasn't working out. It would have been much easier (and quicker) if I had only followed a pattern. Of course I had a vision and had to go with that and make it up as I went along. I decided to add another row to the side and bottom. It would have to wait until the next day though as it was very late and I was very tired!  :(

On Friday I was refreshed and ready to go backwards and cut, applique, and piece the additional rows together. They actually went together pretty easy!  :)  I then attached them to the quilt and laid it out again to view and measure.

 

I went out and ran a few errands and came back home for the Friday Night Sew-In. I cut and attached two borders to the quilt top.

It was now finished! Hooray!!! I do love how it turned out! To me it's very 60's - 70's-ish. What do you think? Here's a close up of part of it . . .

Did you notice the block with ducks? I know it doesn't really go with the theme but Jess loves ducks and I found this vintage duck sheet and just had to include it!  :)  When I hand-quilt it I think I'm going to add some "peace" and "love". I can't wait to get started on it.

Today I've been working on the backs of Jay and Jess' quilts. I'm hoping to get them sandwiched tonight or definitely by tomorrow if I run out of time. Then I can begin quilting them. I'm excited to see how they turn out. My goal was to get both of the quilt tops done by the end of this week and I did it! Now I just have to get them finished by next Friday. Can I do it? Stay tuned!  :)

Until next time . . .

Winning!

Hello!

Have you checked out the Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways or the Giveaway Day 2011 Give-Aways yet? I've somehow managed to enter all the giveaways from the Blog Hop Party already (there were over 200 of them). Today I'll start on the Giveaway Day giveaways. I love winning things, as I'm sure you do too. 

I found out this morning that I won a prize already! Can you believe it? Carole from Tuffimom's Quilts was giving away a Moda Rouenneries Deux charm pack. It's mine now! Woo Hoo!  :)

I can't believe I won! I'm so excited and can't wait to see the fabrics in person.  :)

So far this has been my lucky week as I also won a giveaway from the Friday Night Sew-In I participated in last Friday night. I won the "Ooo Rah Wallet" Pattern and fabric from Debbie of Stitches and Seams.

She offers the pattern in her Etsy shop, Made By Mother of Marine if you're interested in getting one for yourself. I hear that it's a pretty easy pattern although it looks daunting.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I win some other items this week. I'm not counting on it but am hopeful.  :)  It's always nice to get something for free! Good luck to you too! Don't forget to enter to win my Snowman Mini Quilt if you haven't already.  :)

Until next time . . .

Christmas Gifts Progression. . .

Hello!  :)

I've been a busy bee over here.  :)  On Sunday I went and got the thread I needed to finish the last pair of Jammie pants. I also put the elastic in all of them and stitched them closed. All 6 pairs are officially finished!  :)

I still have two more Christmas presents to finished in the next two weeks (actually less than that now!). I need to make two twin size quilts. Sunday after I finished the jammie pants I cut the fabric for my oldest son Jay's quilt. I can share it with you now because I haven't told my older kids I have a blog yet. I will do so at Christmas.

Anyway . . . I'm going to back up a little bit. I knew I wanted to make both of my older kids quilts for Christmas this year. They both live at their Grandfather's house (on their father's side). He doesn't have a working heater and I know they could use something to keep them warm. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do for my daughter Jessica's quilt but I had no idea on a theme or color scheme for Jay's quilt. Then all of the sudden it hit me. Hawaiian! He loves Hawaii and all things Hawaiian, beach themed, etc. I go to thrift stores all the time and began looking for cool Hawaiian shirts to use for his quilt. There were lots of beautiful shirts in all kinds of fabrics but I stuck with the 100% cotton ones. I forgot to take pictures of the shirts while they were still shirts (sorry). There's actually quite a bit of fabric in the shirts, especially the 5x one I found. I couldn't believe I found one so large. Anyway . . . In the picture below you can see the squares already cut from the shirts in a circle (ignore the center fabrics for now).

For the quilt I'm using Amy Smart's Lattice Quilt pattern that I got from her Bits and Bobs Etsy shop. I laid out the fabric squares in a pleasing arrangement.

Then I labeled them and stacked them up ready for sewing.

Before I continue I'll share the sashing, border and backing fabrics I chose to use.

The fabric on the bottom is a really cool sheet I found while thrift store shopping for the background. I love it! The blue fabric is a wonderful Hawaiian batik print I found to use for the second border and the cornerstones. It really ties all the fabrics together. I'm using Kona Cotton in bone for the sashing and first border. I think I'm going to use a black batik for the binding but I haven't gotten it yet.

On Monday the quilt top sewed up pretty quickly. Amy has great instructions. When I finished sewing it I laid it out on the floor to view it. I actually squealed in delight and jumped up and down. I was very happy with it! It was great satisfaction after a long day sewing.  :)  This is only the second quilt top I have ever made.

Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat.  :(  I have been pushing myself pretty hard to get these things finished up before Christmas. After I took my son to school I came home and went back to bed for a few hours. It helped. I woke up without a sore throat but now I have a cold. Oh well. Someday I'll learn to take care of myself better. :)

I did manage to get the borders on the quilt top today. I'm very happy with the results! The blue really brightens it up but not too much. I think I made the right decision in using the same blue for the cornerstones. It really carries the colors throughout the quilt to complete the look.

What do you think? Do you like it? Does it look masculine enough? Here's another view. . .

Tomorrow I will cut the fabric's for Jessica's quilt and get it started. As soon as I have both tops finished I'll sandwich them and hand quilt them. I've never hand quilted before but I think I can do it. I love embroidery. Isn't it similar? If anyone has any pointers, tips, tricks, suggestions please share them with me. I'm hoping to be able to start quilting them by this weekend. By the way, what color (or colors) would you use to quilt Jay's quilt? I just can't figure it out. I appreciate all the help and advice I can get! Thanks! :)

Until next time . . .

100 Followers!

Hello!  :)

I started this blog in August and have been so excited each time someone 'follows me'. As of last week I had 93 followers. I'd been hoping to hit 100 before the end of the year. Now that I'm participating in the Blog Hop GiveAway & the Giveaway Day 2011 I'm way over this mark! I never dreamed so many people would be interested in checking out what I'm up to! Thank you all so much! I appreciate each and every one of you!  :)  You inspire me to keep going!  :)

I'm getting a little off track . . . the reason I'm bringing this up is that I've been planning on having a giveaway when I reach 100 followers. Now since I'm already having a giveaway this month, I will not be having the 100 Followers Giveaway to celebrate until January. I just don't think I could keep up with so much this month as well as the holidays. Right now I have 145 followers! Wow! I love it! I'll tell you what . . . if I reach 200 followers before January I'll giveaway 2 prizes!

I hope you will stay tuned for the upcoming giveaways, and everything else I have going on.  :)

Merry Christmas!

Until next time . . .

I Occupied My Sewing room for the Friday Night Sew-In!

Hello!  :)

I occupied my sewing room most of the day, into the night Friday.  :)

Remember when I showed you this fabric and told you I was making something for my 23 year old son & my hunky dude with it? Did you guess what I could be making?

Here it is . . .

Still don't know what it is huh? Well it's a bandana! I made two of them. They like to wear them occasionally as do rags. Of course they were very simple and quick to make. I just measured another bandana. I then added 1/2" to the measurements for seam allowances and sewed them up. They will make great stocking stuffers for my two older men.  ;)

I almost got all the jammie pants done. All seams and hems are done on 5 out of 6 of them, but the elastic's not in them yet. I had got a deal on the elastic online at JoAnn's, with free shipping, and it hadn't come in yet. Of course it came in today so I'll be adding it tomorrow and sewing the elastic holes closed. I almost finished sewing the 6th pair up but ran out of thread. I was almost done too! Of course I used a special color. Now I have to go buy some more tomorrow. Oh well.  :)  I took pictures of them although they didn't turn out too well and you can't see much (sorry!).

Here are the one's I made for my oldest son Jay . . .

Here are the two I made for my youngest son Pete . . .

And these are the two I made for my only daughter Jess (the unfinished pair is still inside out) . . .

I have to say this was a very productive FNSI! I really wish I had got them completely finished but will do so tomorrow. It will be nice to cross these items off my to do list.  :)

Thanks to the wonderful hosts for hosting another successful FNSI!

Until Next Time . . .

Don't Miss Out on my GIVEAWAY!  :)