Math for the Black and Red block quilt

I thought I would include the math & dimensions for Libby's Christmas quilt I made her. The blocks were pretty simple. They are 12 1/2" blocks- there were 25 total blocks for the quilt with 6" sashing on the outside. Finished quilt came out to about 72" X 72" square.

Back to the blocks...I had 6 colors of the flannel - I prewashed & dried all the flannel, actually did the Red twice. I was a little worried about the red, not sure if it would bleed or not. So I washed & dried it twice. I had 2 'sizes' of blocks. they were all 12.5" blocks, however the inside dimensions were a little different.

All the solid Black, White & Grey had 8" blocks on the inside- adding 1/4" on each side made it an 8.5" block. the sides with seam allowances came to: 2 cuts of 2.5" X 12.5" and 2 cuts of 2.5" X 8.5"

For the Black & White Damask, Red and Grey & Black print had 5.5" blocks on the inside (including seam allowances), the other cuts were 2 cuts of 4" X 5.5" and 2 cuts of 4" X 12.5"

No specific layout or pattern on how I arranged them, but I tried to have patterns & solid opposite each other if possible.

Giving is receiving !

Finally celebrated Christmas with my husband's family this morning. The Alabama crew made came in late last night so we celebrated first thing this morning. I've been so excited - I had made 3 quilts, one for my mother in law- Dee, one for my husband's Grandfather & 1 for my husband's Aunt Libby. I finished Dee's quilt back in September sometime, made Grandpa's quilt back in November and ahem....STARTED Libby's quilt last week.....and finished it LAST NIGHT. Yes it was pulling it close, but I did it. And she was thrilled! and it was a good thing we celebrate Christmas a few days AFTER the 25th :)

I think I only make handmade gifts because I love to see the faces when they see it for the first time. pure joy :) Libby even said, she was secretly hoping I would make her one. She was thrilled when she opened the bag. My mother in law on the other hand, cried. a good cry though. She knew immediately the fabrics used were from her grandmother. I didn't get any pictures of Grandpa opening up his gift because all 3 of them opened theirs up at just about the same time.

I was taking a little test shot of Kathryn (Gavin's cousin) opening her gift when I realized Libby opening the quilt! oops!


That smile is realizing what it is :)


inspecting the flannel quilt


My Mother in Law Dee starting to tear up



Since I finished it late last night- Kathryn & I went outside for a quick shoot this morning (using my new lens yahoo!)


Finished quilt is pretty large- 74" X 74" a nice big snuggle quilt - 100% cotton flannel both front & back




And my next project will be a design wall in my office as my floor isn't cutting it anymore. I am happy with the finished quilt- but wishing I had added more red so it didn't look so random in the quilt. I used 6 different flannel prints, but black/grey/white/red flannel prints isn't so easy to come by. but over all, I'm glad Libby loves it and I just wish I bought enough flannel to make myself one too!





From my funny little family to yours- Merry Christmas and happy new year!

Do it yourself FAIL

Can't help but post this because it is too stinking funny not to share. And God Bless my friend Jes for doing this. This is the reason why I call her one of my 'besties' something like this happens & you can't help but laugh at yourself.
jes & I have been talking for sometime now about buying ourselves a dressform. Jes has gotten into sewing clothes. I haven't yet, but I still want a dressform. She decided to go the DIY route & save some money, so she found an online tutorial & followed it.
As I'm sitting at the computer tonight getting some work done, I get this text picture....



And the text that follows says...
"So David {her husband, who is a volunteer firefighter} was duct taping me to make a mannequin of myself and just got paged out to a house fire. Now I'm stuck standing in this until he gets home. Greatness!! LOL"
My only response was "that's hilarious! It's Facebook worthy!"

Jes decided to quickly figure out how to cut herself out of it when my husband replied with "Hope you don't have to go to the restroom anytime soon!"

I think we'll be laughing over this one for a while!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cancer sucks quilt done!

Ahhhh i love it when a big project is complete! Even better when I get to hand it off and send it to it's new home.

I met up with Sara & Mimi yesterday. We let the boys all play & I got to hang out with Sara & Mimi for a few. Mimi is such a fun lady. Always has the right thing to say at the right time. And it's usually some smartass comment too :) She has a tough demeanor about her & seems that she can take on anything. But she is sweet & so loving even when my boys haven't seen her in almost a year, they're holding her hand & giving her hugs in the first 5 minutes. In my mind she is that ideal grandmother type & I know if my Mom were still here she would be just like her. So I appreciate the extra love and attention she gives to my boys. What a great lady she is!

SO onto the pictures....I photographed the quilt before leaving this morning...always a mistake- morning sun is harsh, but I couldn't NOT photograph it!

There was 1 block sent that had cute buttons on it & I was afraid to put it in the quilt. If Mimi ever washed the quilt, I wasn't quite sure if the buttons would bleed their paint or not- so instead I used the block as a pocket on a tote bag. I thought the bag would be handy to carry her quilt & kindle in to chemo. plus it matches :)


2 of the blocks I made- the cancer sucks is my favorite :-) & I thought the martini glass was just cute!



top part of the quilt- so many great blocks were submitted. i love that there are pictures of her grandchildren and family too. The tote bag is covering up one of my favorite blocks- it's a moose in an Alaska setting (all pink) really detailed and looks like lots of handy work. If I did the same, it would end up looking like a cow or something. ha! Should have taken a pic without the tote bag. doh!



More blocks.... love the Alaskan cruise ship too...I love how each block is so different!


bottom part of the quilt - the boys in the family submitted inspirational quotes. I thought that was sweet!
Thank you to everyone of Mimi's friends & family who contributed to this quilt. I really enjoyed it. I also know that Mimi will enjoy this quilt & physically see the love and prayers being said for her thru this battle !

Cancer sucks quilt is almost complete!

Wow have I been busy! Busy with work, boys, and even 2 craft shows in the past 3 weeks. Finally things have been calming down. I finally acquired the remaining few pieces/blocks a couple weeks back so since then The Cancer Sucks quilt has been my #1 priority. I'm thrilled to say I'm almost done!

On another good note, I'm also happy to report that Sara got great news from Mimi earlier this week that the cancer is shrinking. Praise the Lord for news like that!

I'm hoping to get the quilt to Mimi in the next couple of days before her next scheduled Chemo appt. I've received such sweet notes behind these blocks going into the quilt that I've decided to put them in a little notebook for Mimi. I've also thought about adding some encouragement to this notebook. SO whether you know Mimi/Judy or not, but would like to contribute you can either email me here or you can even comment on this post & I'll add it to the book.

"Encouragement" being a quick note, scripture, prayer, etc. Get creative!

I can't wait to post final pictures of the quilt and notebook too!

Yet another banner crib quilt

I also worked on this quilt at the retreat a couple of weeks back. It's a crib size quilt- I used basic white muslin as the quilt & when I quilted it I used a decorative stitch (just looked like large squiggles) that was preset on my sewing machine. So essentially I was sewing straight lines, just the machine & needle were doing all the work. That was the most time consuming part, but I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I took it to the retreat and added all the banners & appliqued on the bunting/banners and the letters as well. I've always machine stitched on my binding, but I finally googled and youtube'd enough to figure out how to hand stitch the binding. I'm pretty proud of myself! After washing it, from the decorative stitch quilting, it came out really cool with the way the quilt gathers after washing.

Speaking of google & youtube - the other day someone asked me who taught me how to quilt- I replied with "Google." HAHA it's the truth! I'd love to take some various quilting classes, but I honestly just don't have time. So google & youtube it is :)

This crib quilt has just been listed on Etsy!

simply spoken quilt

I worked on my simply spoken quilt at the retreat and finished it up last week. The weather has been amazingly gorgeous so we finally had an evening early this week to get out and take a few pictures. I'm getting kind of sad, I love taking pictures of my quilts outside- but when all the leaves are gone, not sure how pretty it will be outside :( I'm not a winter kind of girl. boo hoo.

Anyway, here is my finished quilt- front and back were both finished at the retreat! I need another retreat- good thing the DMQG saturday sew is coming up this weekend!

1st DMQG Retreat!

I attended my first quilt retreat this past weekend! I started attending the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild monthly meetings over the summer & even though I only knew 1 person in the group- I've gotten to know these ladies. SO I signed up for the their 1st annual retreat and it was so fun! Next year I will plan better & go for the entire weekend. The retreat started friday thru sunday afternoon. I wasn't able to get there until late Friday night & had to leave early on Sunday- so next year I'll plan ahead better.

After FINALLY arriving late on friday night & only going 15 minutes out of the way- GPS wasn't working, phone was about to die & it was DARK out, I'm surprised I actually found the place! Compass Centre is in Mount Calm, Tx- about 30 miles outside of Hillsboro. What a great facility. They provide all the necessities including yummy meals, beds and of course a really great work room.

I stayed up pretty late on Friday night, determined to catch up for all my lost time & get 1 project accomplished. I finished my 1st quilt top by 1 am & finally headed to bed. I slept great and woke up ON my own (no 3 year old or cats waking me up!) just after 9 & got cleaned up and headed straight for my sewing machine. I was almost giddy I had the ENTIRE day to work. 16 hours is what I spent besides eating meals, bathroom breaks & took a short walk after dinner. oh and i took a 15 min break for a quick photo shoot before dinner too. Getting to know such wonderful ladies was probably the best part. I loved getting that extra hour with the time change. I took full advantage of it!

Sunday morning, (after going to bed pretty late again) I woke up early at 7:30 (sounds of deer season isn't the most pleasant & probably heard 20 shots in 15 minutes.) I figured Bambi was on the run, so I should get to it as well. I had to leave after brunch, so I got a good hour or 2 of work in before breakfast & had to head out shortly after. Even though I felt my time was short at the retreat- I really got a lot done!

I accomplished:

2 quilt tops

1 quilt back

1 crib quilt

started 1 tickertape quilt (basted & started sewing on the scraps)

Not too bad!

I really can't wait until the next retreat- it was so fun! Lots of good food, conversation, learned some new techniques and came home with some new friends.

The Compass Centre

These are 2 of the sweet babies that live on the property. Forgot the cats name, but I swear I heard the dog's name is Pyrex. But I could be mistaken. But if not- i love it! haha They were so sweet & the dog could be my dog's twin. They accompanied me anytime I went outside for a walk.

What a nice break it was to get away from the city! The sunset was gorgeous and the stars at night were AMAZING!

Walking the property with my 2 companions. Sweet babies!

Heading down a country road for a nice walk with the dog. Saw some deer and then heard lots of gunshots. So we headed back.

On my walk after dinner. Nice sunset.

Inside the work room on the design wall- finished my 1st quilt top. LOVED these design walls, now I have to figure out how to have one for myself.

Went for a quick drive before dinner and found these old abandoned buildings. I would have loved to investigate further, however trouble is more fun in pairs. So i did my photo shoot & headed back.

Quilt hanging on the metal gate.

Quilt top again.

My other quilt top on the design wall

Jenna, Juanita & Lori working away

We had such a great set up!

Fabrics galore every where you looked :)

After seeing some items these ladies brought, my christmas list has doubled with quilting items!

Can't wait for next year's retreat!

Going backwards....

Mason's car quilt, originally uploaded by ArtsyFartsyDesigns.

Mason's quilt was the first quilt I completed about 18 months ago when I first began quilting & realized that his quilt was never "photographed". Meaning I took a pic of it on my dining room table (back before I had a craft room) and that really just doesn't do it justice. So we took it out last week & Mason helped me. I love him peeking out. There were actually 3 of us hiding back there. After quilting for over a year & now feeling more comfortable with my quilting skills & techniques- I see some oopsies in his quilt, mainly just the binding which should be easy to fix......when I don't have a plateful of projects!

Vintage Kitchen Quilt Finished!

SO glad this is done! I love the stacked stripe quilts- but it sure did take a long time! Probably doesn't help I stippled large loops (and mirrored them). Stippling isn't my biggest strength (but at least I'm working on it!) and I really think this quilt needed it despite all the lines. For the back, I did the simple aqua blue dots to contrast with the muted orange binding.

I'm happy with the outcome and I LOVE LOVE LOVE these fabrics and colors!

It will be listed on Etsy soon!

almost there...

so I'm still working on my Vintage kitchen quilt... I have it 1/2 stippled. and this quilt, as much as I love it, just reminds me HOW much I hate to stipple. I really prefer my walking foot and doing clean lines. I really think this quilt needs to be stippled, but man is it a beating! I'm really hoping to sit down and finish it tomorrow during nap time.

Do you want to know how much i hate stippling? I've actually procrastinated from it and started a 2nd quilt top. I'm NOT the type to have UFO's. Although I won't let myself piece together the new quilt top until I'm done with the vintage kitchen quilt.

Flickr is a new addiction I have and there are so many quilt groups on there with so much inspiration & eye candy that I'm checking it everyday. So my inspiration for the next quilt is the Plain Spoken quilt. I love the simplicity. So I have everything cut, and I did my layout last night, but I won't piece it yet...must...finish....stippling...first!

Anyway, because I'm cheap, I didn't buy the Plain Spoken pattern at all, I just came up with my own dimensions.... The picture is taken with my iphone well past 12 am so the colors are not right. I'm using olive green, deep berry, navy, deep red, grey, chocolate brown & khaki. There really is no yellow in the quilt. I'm thinking I might sash the quilt with a light grey or navy & bind it with either the same or opposite color. haven't decided yet! I'm really into the navy blues & light greys right now...and I also have no idea what color thread to quilt it with- any suggestions?

Ready Set Go!

I LOVE this crib quilt! It came out SO stinkin' cute! it was a great scrap buster. I appliqued on the letters & bunting banner. The quilting I should have just done straight lines (i'm really into that right now!) but I did some squiggles & loops.

Out on a limb...

crib quilt 1 of 2 for this week....

I saw this cute kids art piece last week & it inspired this little crib quilt. (top left hand corner piece) The birds are appliqued on and their legs are a yellow zig zag stitch. Debating about appliqueing on some wording... maybe "Hanging out" or something of the sort. What do you think?

Onto the next....

I am *still* waiting on dearest Sara for a few blocks to add into Mimi's quilt so I haven't started piecing it yet. Hopefully it will be next week though! IN the mean time....of course I need something to do besides laundry!

This next quilt I'm calling the vintage kitchen quilt. Strange yes, but in the past 2 years my taste in well....anything has rather changed. My taste has always reflected my husband's taste- modern, contemporary, clean lines, bold colors (mostly red) and add in some textures. My kitchen is currently filled with white square dishes (with beading along the edges), and lots of modern red glassware. My next house won't. Well I'll keep the white, but add in COLOR! and those amazing vintage colors!

Back to my story...all of a sudden a couple of years ago I get bored with Red. IMAGINE THAT. don't get me wrong, i still like it...but all of a sudden I'm inspired by other colors and I start wearing bright colored jewelry, de-clutter any excess red in my kitchen and start buying random pieces of vintage furniture and my husband doesn't know what to do with me! He hates it...and I love it. If you ask me what my style & taste is like now? I'd say "Vintage". with some color & texture.

I came across some fabrics that just really got my gears going- It's taking me longer than I expected to piece this quilt together, but when it's done it'll be awesome as usual. It's a design I haven't done yet so I'm excited to finish piecing it together. I'm about 3/4 the way done with the top piece. So stay tuned!

Just for some eye candy- here's some inspiration for my vintage kitchen quilt!

November 17th- Be there!

I will be at Mom's rock 2 event again this year on November 17th- make sure you're there 2!