Look what I got!

Hello!  :)

I received the most wonderful Valentine surprise from Donna of Donna's Lavender Nest.  :)

Donna's a real sweetie and she sent me lots of Valentine goodness! Don't you think?! First she sent me this awesome vintage Valentine. I love it!  :)

Here's a close up of the beautiful heart shaped pin cushion. I absolutely love it!  :)

I love roses, pink and rick rack of course! Did you see the pins in it? Here's a close up of them . . .

Aren't they awesome?!!! Then I found some chocolate goodness hidden inside this awesome Valentine wrapper.  :)

She also sent me a couple of vintage sheets, which I love!  :)  Great job Donna on all of it! It was a very pleasant surprise! You should check out her blog, Donna's Lavender Nest, it's full of lots of vintage goodness!  :)

Check this out . . . 

It's the sewing machine I've had for over 20 years. It's been with me through lots of projects and has served me well. It's very basic though with only 9 stitches.

For Valentine's my hunky dude surprised me with a new sewing machine! He's so awesome!  :)

It's not as fancy as the machine's a lot of you have, but it's definitely an upgrade for me and I love it!  :)

It has 100 stitches!  :)  It also came with the table extension, 10 feet including a walking foot and a free-motion quilting foot. It has lots of fun stuff for me to play with. It kind of makes me nervous. I've gotten it out of the box but haven't played with it yet. It kind of intimidates me. I know it's silly. Maybe tomorrow I'll get busy with it for the Friday Night Sew-In. Wish me luck!  :)

Until next time . . .

Swaps

Hello!  :)

Last week I told you I had joined a Valentine's apron swap. I made one for me and one for my partner. Gail received her apron, so now I can share it with you.

First here is the one I made for me!  :)

I love it!  :)  It was a new pattern for me and went together pretty quick.  :)

This is the one I made for Gail . . .

Here's a close-up of the details . . .

Don't you just love the kitties and pink hearts?!!!  And how about the pink mini pom-pom's on the pocket and of course the extra large rick rack! I hope she likes it as much as I do!  :)

I received my apron and goodies from Gail today. She sent me a two-sided apron, one side Valentine and the other for every day! How cool is that?!!! She also sent me some Valentine socks, cupcake liners & picks, and a set of heart cookie cutters. I'm a lucky girl! I love it all!  :)

Here's the Valentines side, full of hearts, and the goodies.  :)

Here's the reverse side . . .

I love it! Check out that awesome apron fabric!!! OMG!!! I love it!!!  :)  She also used the same heart fabric from the front and some black rick rack! Did I tell you I love it?!!!  :)  Thank you so much Gail! You rock!!!  :)

I have one more swap to share with you. Remember this Snowman block I made?

My partner Nettie received it!  :)  I received this one from her . . .

Isn't it adorable?!!! I love it! It's all appliqued. She did a wonderful job! Thank you Nettie!  :)

That's all the swaps for now. The only other swap I have lined up is making two heart blocks for this month's block swap. Not quite sure what I'm going to do yet. Can't wait to get started on them. I love hearts!  :)

Until next time . . .

MIA

Hello!  :)

Yes that's me! MIA . . . missing in action . . . lol!  ;)  So sorry that I've been gone so long. I got consumed with the holidays and then my daughters and my birthday were after that. So much was going on and there was so much to do. I felt overwhelmed and was just trying to survive. I did make it through the holidays and the birthdays and am now trying to get back to a sense of normal (if it even exists).

When I last left you I had finished Jay's Hawaiian Getaway quilt and was about to give it to him for Christmas. Before I show you the finished quilt I need to show you the newest edition to my family.

Meet Doobie! He's a 3 year old Miniature Pinscher we rescued from our local shelter on December 30th. He's such a cutie!  :)

He's the mellowest dog I've ever seen! He loves to sleep. He was already house trained when we got him. He does like to run away when he gets loose though so we have to be careful when opening doors and keep him on a leash. We think he was abused by a man before as he's real cautious around men and a little timid. He's fitting in nicely though and we're all adjusting well. I love him to death! He loves to sleep on his back . . .

Isn't he a cutie?!!! Here's a funny picture I took when my daughter was here for the birthdays. He was wedged between her and the couch trying to sleep on his back. Kind of looks like he's smiling huh?

That's for letting me share my joy with you!  :)  On to the Hawaiian Getaway Quilt finish. Here it is . . .

I hand quilted it in navy on the squares and blue in the border. It's kind of hard to see.

Here's the full back . . .

and a better close-up of the quilting . . .

I really love how it turned out and he did too! I took some pictures of Jay with the quilt but my hunky dude hasn't given them to me yet (they're on his camera).

Jessica was bummed that her Peace and Love quilt wasn't finished before Christmas but understood. She asked if I could finish it by her birthday, January 6th and I said of course. With trying to get things back in order after Christmas I barely made the deadline, but I did make it. Her quilt had much more quilting on it than Jay's did. Here's a picture of her finished quilt (with Jay's cat testing it out).

I hand quilted it with green, pink, yellow, blue and purple on all the solid squares, around the flowers and in the borders.

Here's a picture of the back (sorry it's not a good pic).

I added one appliqued flower to the back of the quilt. Here's a close-up of it and the quilting.

I joined an I-Spy Charm Swap the other day. Lorelei from Midnight Maker is hosting it. She had lots of interest and opened a second group. Of course I'm doing both!  ;)  If you're interested in joining you can check it out by clicking here . . .

I ordered my two fabrics for the swap from Fabric.com. Here they are . . .

Can't wait to see all the fabrics!  :)

I'm hoping to clean up my neglected sewing space tomorrow and get some projects lined up to work on. I have a few that were started before Christmas and others that I want to get started on.

Hope your 2012 is going great for you! So far mine is!  :)

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 . . .