Christmas Memory

Kelly is having a giveaway/walk down memory lane and it is fun to join in!

My favorite Christmas morning memory is the year mom did a doll house for us four girls...beautiful wooden Victorian house...looking back now, I can't imagine the hours she put into it...there was wallpaper, carpet, crochet rugs, bed linens, paintings on the walls and tons of furniture with the doll family.  It was simply wonderful.  My sister now has the house, in near perfect condition, wish I could get a pic to post here, but time doesn't allow.

Wishing you all a very Merry and safe Christmas season.

Christmas present

I found this pattern in Amanda Blake Soule's newest book, Handmade Home. The book is in very high demand from my local library and for very good reason. It is cool. Lots of good ideas...this is what I accomplished before I had to return my copy...and get back on the waiting list.

The bags are for my good friend who is forever at the beach or taking her girls hiking...and in our visit to them this summer I found everyone was always bringing treasures home from the beach or trail. The idea is to use window screen so that the sand or dirt or whatnots can sift thru the bag before they are forever in your car,van, or carpet. great, huh? And...it just so happened our screen door has slammed its last slam this summer, so I had lots of screen to work with...and the handles are from belts my mom has had in a bag for who knows how long!!

These are my first attempts at making bags, and they were very quick to make. I realize the pattern is very simple, but I like starting simple!

Dear Santa,

I simply cannot help myself! All the girls on the playground are showing me their letters to you, Santa, and I have yet to write one! So here is the short list, dearest Kris Kringle...

This fab shop is offering to get my list directly into your hands....

I would dearly love some fabrics for Christmas:

any assortment of these prints would make me giddy.

and before it is too late, this lovely bundle would be put to good use.

and, since you are busy, and have a heavy load, this is always a well received gift.

Your biggest fan,

Jenny

big boy bed

At a craft fair in November I found this terrific bed sheet for Hugo's bed. I love the illustrations on the top sheet and the pillow case. to the left is the pillowcase and below are a close up and overall view of the flat sheet.

Have you ever seen anything like this? It is old and nearly thread bare in spots, and the flat sheet has a hole or two, but I am in love!

The illustrations remind me of Ezra Jack Keats illustrations.

Sophie's pillow

My sweet 10 year old niece just welcomed her 4th younger brother and for such a thing...she gets a makeover of her bedroom. She choose purple and green colors. I made this pillow using the tutorial at Tallgrass Prairie Studio. I will be giving this to her for Christmas. The tutorial was very easy to follow and I was excited to try it out.

I don't think this will be my last pillow. I like small projects!


Here is a picture of the back of the pillow using a Kaffe fabric that I do not remember buying.

Chloe's quilt

Here is front and back of a quilt I finished last year for my niece, Chloe. I had other plans to post a finished pillow, but our furnace has decided to NOT work on the coldest, windiest day imaginable...it is nap time now, and if it's not fixed by end of nap, we are picking up and going to camp out at the library for a while. It is 12 degrees and winds around 20mph I think.

Anyway, thought I would at least show you something I have completed, even though it has been over a year since finished. I love the square patchwork quilts...I should make them more often, but I also feel like there are so many 'cool' things to do with quilts, why do just squares? Will get picture of new pillow I made for my niece for Christmas in next day or too...

Brrrr....

WINNER

Thanks everyone who entered...can you believe 421 of you lovely crafters stopping by my blog?
I can't to be quite honest, and I even picked up a few followers!!
Anyway, I would like to congratulate Holly! She is my winner!
I will email you shortly Holly.
Thanks everyone for playing!
And a special thank you to everyone who made suggestions or posted a link for Hugo's big boy quilt!

Sew Mama Sew Give Away Day!

So the Giveaway day hosted by Sew, Mama, Sew starts tomorrow, but I have a free minute to do my post now with nap time...so let's get the party started!

My giveaway is 4 fat quarters of Anna Marie's Chocolate Lollipop line.

And because Colette and I are having so much fun with fabric covered button magnets, we made a set of 4 to give away as well!

The lovely Princess Pea and her slippers...as well as another print by Anna Maria Horner.

So please leave a comment to be entered to win. I will post internationally. I am thinking about making a quilt for Hugo's 'big boy' bed...so if you have any ideas for a twin size quilt for a 2 year old boy, please leave that in the comment...colors, patterns, a link to one you have made that turned out great. I will leave the giveaway open until December 6th and pick a winner that night.

If you have a minute, you should really check out the button on the top right of my blog to see all the other giveaways going on at Sew, Mama, Sew...but beware, it will be a huge time suckage!!

Lucky November

November has been a really lucky month for me. I won two really great giveaways. Earlier this month I won 7 YARDS of fabric from BJ Lantz designing for E Studio. Check out this amazing fabric. BJ was so kind to send 1/2 yard cuts instead of fat quarters...what a gem!

Then, just today I get an email from Sarah telling me I have won a gorgeous pair of Gingher scissors. Do me a favor and click HERE to see what I am talking about. gorgeous, right? and best money can buy in my opinion!

So when I read that Sew Mama Sew was hosting Giveaway Day on December 2nd, it didn't take me long to decide to join in! So come back here Wednesday and see what I will be giving away, not to mention the hundreds of giveaways around blog land...just click the button in the top right corner to find out all about it!

edit to add: I am going to show the picture of the fabric I won...I think, even with my bad picture, it shows off the fabric better than the Internet link. It really is a great pile of fabric..different than anything in my stash, so I'm looking for some ideas (hint...hint).

OK, so I think this is too fun to let pass by without sharing it with all my friends...check out Andrea's blog and see what your fellow quilters and crafters are putting on their 'wish lists' this Christmas season!

Tag Sale

Not so long ago I went to a quilt auction that also housed a tag sale of fabrics, notions, and quilting books. It was so much fun and I picked up a few lots...I have been looking around for gray fabrics, and look at these beauties!

These are a few others I found that I think that I will certainly be able to work with.

And lastly, this fabric that I find unusual, yet full of potential.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends...whether you are in the States or not, what a good opportunity today is to pause and reflect on all the things you are grateful for!

Moms wreath

Well, I finished the wreath last night. I really like it. I need to finish off the top with ribbon or something to hide the remaining hanger hook.


But if you are interested in doing this, I want to give you a few tips I think you will find helpful.

*definitely glue all the ornament tops with hot glue.


* definitely scour your thrift stores, but make sure to purchase ornaments with metal hooks, not the plastic hooks...I lost about 9 ornaments by those plastic hooks just breaking in two.


I guess that is it. If you have any questions feel free to ask!


Also, here is a link to the wreath tutorial.

Christmas Presents

This box of ornaments will hopefully be a fun Christmas wreath for my mom by the days end...I got the idea from Randi's blog and I hope mine turns out cute because I plan to give it to mom on Thanksgiving...along with the Christmas garland seen in the picture below...sorry it is sideways!

Flea Market Fancy giveaway

If you like Flea Market Fancy fabrics 1/2 as much as I do, you ought to check out Penny's blog for a great giveaway. And here:


is where I should be showing the darling pear pincushion 'giveaway button', but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the button to post!

Whether you sign up for the giveaway or not, please sign the petition to let Freespirit know we would like a reprint of this fabulous fabric line!

Pay It Forward

Wow, I finally got in on a Pay It Forward. I've been mulling over whether I would like to take one on, and then I found Amy was looking for participants and I jumped at the chance. I have been reading her blog for a while and really enjoy her work. So, I think you all know what that means...If you would like to receive a handmade gift from me, and are willing to make and send a handmade gift along to three of your blog readers, please let me know in the comments. Once you accept, you will receive something from me within 365 days. In turn, you will have 365 days to fulfill your end of the bargain. So, if you would like to accept the challenge and commit to keeping this going, leave a comment!!

Sorry no picture today...trying to post quickly while Colette and Hugo are bouncing on the bed!!!!

Wonky

Finished my blocks last night for Victoria

and really really enjoyed working with these fabrics...and log cabins. I love doing log cabins...I should do them more often...

and now...I think I need to buy some Kona cottons. beautiful fabrics to work with.

If you are not a member of a quilting bee, I highly suggest it, I'm having so much fun with mine!

daylight savings

Is anyone else struggling with a toddler who just doesn't accept daylight savings time change? In fact, down right ignores it? We have had some very early mornings at my house...

but I have managed to finish my blocks for SIS BOOM POW. I found the tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew and had a lot of fun doing these blocks. I am a novice with applique so I thought raw edge would be a nice place to start.

Halloween garland

Took the kids to my husbands office for trick or treat. Lots of fun. Colette is a racer driver...my mom made the costume for her and she loves it. Hugo was not particularly interested in wearing any costume, but had just as much fun!

Well, we are ready for the Halloween/birthday party here on Saturday. The garland is done and hanging up. Had lots of fun making this, and think I will do a Christmas garland next.

garland

I made some fabric garland using a tutorial on Sew,Mama, Sew this past month and it is so darling. I used gingham fabrics and it will be perfect for a girls bedroom...now I am going to try some Halloween garland using the above fabrics, and some Christmas garland using the fabrics below...of course I may do some switching of fabrics yet, but these are the piles I'm starting with.

Hopefully I can post soon with all my various garland projects! Have any of you done garland before? Im using a scalloped design...just curious if there are any good tutorials of other shapes?

Magnets and a winner

Colette and I are having a great time making fabric covered magnets. So, pretty much, if you get a Christmas present from our family, you can expect one of these!
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This giveaway business is kind of fun!

Here are your random numbers:28
Timestamp: 2009-10-21 18:04:14 UT


I went to Random.org and according to my count and anyone who did a blog posting, the winner is Melissa!

What fun! Melissa is in my Dozen Quilters bee...I really need to figure out how to do the buttons so I can add that to the side of my blog.

Congratulations Melissa! I will get it in the mail to you!

Fabric swap

I had a fabric swap with my fellow Quilter's Dozen bee member, Marie and look what she sent! What a lovely pile! I was looking to swap for Nest, and Marie really came thru with a nice piece! Thanks so much Marie!

Incidentally, if anyone is interested in swapping fabrics, I really enjoy doing this.

busy weekend

I meant to be experimenting with my new kit to make fabric covered magnets this weekend...but instead:

We were surrogate parents to my niece and nephews while my sister delivered a healthy, handsome baby boy on Saturday morning.

So I hope to get to the magnets this week...if anyone has any tips, please pass them along...the directions seem pretty straight forward, so I'm hoping it will be a fun activity for me and my daughter during my son's afternoon nap.

Doll Quilts and a Giveaway!

Firstly, I am slowly working on making doll quilts from cute blocks I made years ago. The blocks are not my finest work, but I am having fun finishing them off at 12x12...this one is getting binding tonight.

Now that we are done with tonight's business...let's move on to the exciting bit. A giveaway. I have won a few giveaways in the past year and have been really touched by the generosity of the quilters and crafty people in blogland...so in hopes of marking my little space in blogland and becoming more of a social butterfly I would like to host a giveaway.

I have some Apples and Pears by Alexander Henry to share..and do you see that box spilling over with fabric? Well, I figure if I post a giveaway of scraps also, I'll be forced to go through that box and clean it out...either find a home for it in my storage areas, or send it to you!

Please leave a comment to be entered...and if you would kindly write about it on your blog, let me know you did it and I'll happily give you 2 entries! I'll pick a winner on October 21!

Baby Quilt

This is my most recent quilt. Measures approximately 36x45. And is boxed up waiting a trip to Indianapolis for my college roommates soon to be born son.

I learned a lot of things doing this quilt. Firstly, I need a lot of work on 'fussy' cutting if that is indeed what I was doing with the center blocks. My head must have been in the clouds when cutting because I don't feel like I feature any animal very well in the center. bad technique, wrong fabric/size square...maybe all of the above...lesson learned...hopefully!

I also learned about working with no pattern. I just assembled blocks as I saw fit and used white fabric to square up the blocks...then I add the sashing. Still not sure it is ideal, but it is OK.

It was quilted by my local quilt shop. They just got a longarm and agreed to quilt this and my sister's baby quilt (previous post) for $15. I thought since time was tight it was a good idea!

I thought this was my favorite when taking photos, but now I am not so sure.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

This is my most recent finished quilt. This is a quilt for my sister's soon to be born baby. #5...can you imagine?? She and her husband prefer not to find out the sex of the baby until birth, so I was going for unisex in color...but not only that, my brother in law is a re-enactor...he dresses up in Colonial times clothing that he has made himself. He makes his own clothes, tent, blankets...you name it...keeps it real authentic. So, I was hoping for this quilt to not only be unisex, but somehow fit in if they chose to take it to a festival.

I was lucky enough to visit a local quilt shop during a scrap bag sale...fill a bag for $1.00. They were kinda small bags mind you, but I was able to find lots of fabrics for this quilt there.

My sister lays her baby on the quilt I make (I've made each neice/nephew one at birth, and then some) each month to capture how much the baby grows the first year...It's fun to be a part of such a record of growth for these kids!

So, thanks for stopping by...especially if you are from Park City Girl - Blogger's Quilt Festival. I am brand new to blogging, but am looking forward to this new adventure...and a giveaway to get the ball rolling will be happening next week!

Be sure to click on the button below to visit all bloggers participating in the festival!

and we are off...

Thanks to Amy at Park City Girl, I am officially entering blogdom. I am excited and nervous that I will fall flat on my blog face. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?