Monday, January 3, 2011

I love you but...

I'm ready for school to begin again.




(no, he doesn't have a head injury, he takes eye drops for vision improvement)

I hope you have had a wonderful vacation like we have.  If you're anything like me though, you're silently chanting "school, school, School, SCHOOL!!!!"  Only one more day left before my world goes back to it's nice routine.  I have loved all of the laughs, cuddles, new movies and toys, and time spent with sisters, cousins, parents.  I haven't loved the MINE, HE HIT ME, and FART that have been flowing willynilly around the house.  May your new year be happy, bright and fart free.  That's a special wish from me to you ;-)

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Coming Soon - Nesting Circles Quilt

Just a quick snapshot of a new WIP to tease you.  Yes, that is my beloved Accuquilt Go cutter using the circles die.  The fabric line is Luna Notte by 3 Sisters for Moda.  Stay tuned for a tutorial of this quilt coming soon!

Friday, December 31, 2010

Spoonflower Love

Earlier this month Spoonflower ran an amazing special on Fat Quarters.  I took the plunge and bought six of them.  It was hard to pick which ones to get!  I wanted some fabrics that were quirky, colorful or different.  If I was going to go out of my way to get this special fabric, I wanted it to add some character to my projects.

When the fabrics arrived, the first thing I noticed was that they were as great as I imagined.  Also, Spoonflower's "business card" included in the order is made out of fabric.  That makes complete sense.  Since then, I have discovered that Julie of Jaybird Quilts uses Spoonflower to make her fabric quilt labels.  Brilliant!  Totally stealing that idea someday (when I miraculously learn to design a label).

Without further ado, here are the fabrics I chose:






Hope you enjoyed the fabric porn.  If you're like me, you're not even reading this anymore because you've already clicked over to Spoonflower...

Also, just a note that I don't have any relationship to Spoonflower nor am I receiving anything in exchange for a glowing review.  Besides my one order, they don't even know who I am. I just sincerely love the concept of fabriholics being able to design their own fabric and have it printed relatively affordably and in a jiffy!  Go check it out and let me know what you think.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Mom's Quilt

I finished a quick Verna Charm Square quilt for my mother this Christmas.  She has been begging for a quilt and has even purchased fabric for me to make one for her.  The muse hasn't told me how to make a quilt with her particular fabric yet but I ALWAYS know how to make a Verna quilt and a Charm Square quilt!  So I patched these babies together and sewed my little heart out in order to give it to her on Christmas Day.

This is the first pieced back I've made.  I just had to use those pink owls out of my stash since they have been hooting at me for a year now from the shelf!  I tried to quilt it with light pink thread but the thread kept breaking.  Due to my rush, I switched to white to get it done.

My favorite part is the binding.  The fabric is an Alexander Henry stripe.  Delish!




Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Scenes from Christmas

Many of you know that I lost my stepfather, Doug, three days before Christmas.  He had late stage cancer and severe COPD but it was still awful and "sudden".  We had to make some terrible decisions the week before Christmas and say goodbye to a gentle and loving soul.  He passed away on the 22nd and his service was on the 27th.  This brought all of us together for Christmas.  My two sisters and their husbands along with my two stepbrothers and their wives.  And all the kids. Doug would have loved it!

We gathered at my mom's house in Greenville, SC.  More shocking than anything was the heavy snow that arrived on Christmas day.  My sisters' families and I actually stayed at my dad's house since my mom's house was full of other family.  My dad's house is on a mountain which made for an even more gorgeous snowfall.
My three kids are in red and green pjs.  The other three boys are my sister's.  They live in Minnesota so they were not impressed with our "blizzard".  You can only imagine how magical Christmas morning was with six children between the ages of 3 and 8!
Chris

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Placemats and Potholders

Here is a better picture
For the potholders, I added a small hanging loop when I attached the binding.  Here is a close-up of how I had to figure that process out by trial and error:
Many of you commented that you like to see both the good and bad side of quilting.  So I decided to let this "bad" loop stand.  I wanted to show you that it's not that big of a deal.  It's a handmade item and it's ok for it to look like a handmade item.  Now I've learned a better way of doing the loop (the one on the right) so I'll know for the future.

Basically, the first loop I did, I tried to sew the binding behind the loop.  The second one, I sewed the binding onto the loop itself.  In both cases, I machine sewed the loop onto the raw corner of the quilt sandwich first.  I'm sorry I didn't take pics of this process at the time.  I was racing to get it done and sent out to the winner.

I have lots more pictures to share on the blog since I bought a new camera for Christmas!  Stay tuned for updates including the quick Verna quilt I made for my mom for Christmas, the completed Verna quilt I made for myself, and more progress pictures of the Michael Miller Christmas quilt I'm still working on for the Old Red Barn Co quilt-along.

Have a wonderful day!

Edited to add:
A post on Twitter helped me to realize that this placemat project is very similar to a Rachel Griffith Moda Bake Shop tutorial for a table runner.  This was completely unintentional and I have removed the placemat instructions in an effort not to offend anyone!  I am a huge fan of both the Moda Bake Shop and Rachel Griffith of ps I quilt.  I came up with these placemats when Sew, Mama, Sew announced their giveaway.  At the time I was working on my Michael Miller Christmas quilt and had some leftover jelly roll strips but not alot of time.  My sister had recommended giving away placemats as a tie-in with my first Moda Bake Shop placemat recipe that same week.  Great!  I'll just sew these strips together quick and easy.  It never occurred to me that someone had created and posted a design putting strips together as a placemat.  So if I stepped on anyone's toes, please accept my heartfelt apology!  As you can see from my blog archives, I try always to give credit to fabric, pattern, and tutorial designers whenever I make something with them.  Thanks!

Overheard

This morning I overheard my 3 yr old yelling at the Christmas tree:
"MAKE MORE PRESENTS.... NOW!"