'Pretty In Pink' Quilt...Cottage Style!

My Grandmother fell and broke her hip this past Fall...and suddenly life changed for her and many members of my family. My G'ma is doing quite well now after a hip replacement but she now lives with my Aunt and although it is a blessing for both of them, it is not without its stresses as well. I started on this quilt for my G'ma after she had her surgery as I knew it was going to be hard for her to leave her home for an indefinite period of time and I wanted her to have a 'lovey' to snuggle with on the couch as she read her books or wrote in her journal this winter.

I chose the pattern from Heather Mulder Peterson's book Livin' Large. The pattern is Pretty In Pink. Heather actually has a recent post where she made the quilt in a Christmas Seasonal color palette. Go check it out when you get a chance as it is lovely!

Here is the front of the quilt I made. I used fabric mainly from the Cotton Blossoms line by Bonnie and Camille for Moda.

I had the long-arm quilter use a swirly pattern for the quilting in a red/brick color that matched the red in the fabric:
I pieced the back as well to give it some design flair!
A close up of the back of the quilt: Here it is laid out beneath our tree in the family room. While the colors do lend towards the winter/Christmas season, it is not meant as a seasonal quilt. But it does look nice and cozy beneath the Christmas tree!
All folded and ready to give to my G'ma for Christmas! The colors in this quilt are exactly what I have in my home: earthy and warm! Good thing I have enough fabric to make another one since I loved this color combination so much! For that quilt I plan to use the same fabrics but use the pattern A Piece of Cake by Camille Roskelley.

I had plenty of links above so you can go and appreciate the works of the women who inspired me to make this quilt, both by pattern and fabric!

Quilted Crayon Roll...

I found this pattern in a Better Homes and Gardens Quilting Ideas magazine. (Page 108) It is a quilted crayon roll.

It holds 12 favorite crayons. I made this one for my niece for her 3rd birthday. I paired it with a Princess coloring book for a sweet little gift.

This is the back of the crayon roll: Here it is all rolled up and tied! It was quite a simple project only taking me an hour or so to cut the fabric and batting, assemble, and sew!

Fall Simple Little Table Runner...

I was inspired by finishing the Halloween table runner last night with the machine binding so I got up this morning and finished hand sewing the binding for my Fall table runner! I am participating in Show and Tell Friday's at Cindy's today and thought this the perfect thing to share! We had a great crisp October morn. here in North Texas just perfect for an outside photo op of the newly finished table runner.

The fabric used is Gobble, Gobble by Sandy Gervais for Moda.

The pattern is for the Simple Little Table Runner by Camille Roskelley and came from the Moda Bake Shop. She has a great tutorial on the site for it!

The back of the runner is shown above.

The table runner was quilted in pumpkins and vines using burnt orange thread. Quilting was done by Becky at Old Town Quilts in Keller. I hope you enjoyed seeing my newly completed table runner! Go visit Cindy and see more fun items shared!

Halloween Table Runner...made from the Moda Bake Shop Pattern...

Today I finished the Simple Little Table Runner by Camille Roskelley from the Moda Bakeshop !!! How fitting for October 1st! The fabric is Spooktacular by Sanae for Moda.
Here is a picture of the back: The quilting was done in designs of bats, witches, ghosts, the moon, black cats, etc...all Halloween-y things!
Below is a close up of the quilting:
It was such a fun little project. I highly recommend it. I did the binding on this one all with my sewing machine. I started a table runner with this same pattern using Gobble, Gobble fabric by Sandy Gervais for Moda, but I still lack like a foot on the binding where I am hand sewing it around to the back....I just need to get on it! I will post pictures of it when I have it completed.

Autumn Quilted Table Runner...

I picked up a charm pack of Autumn fabric the last time I visited our local quilt shop. It is Gobble Gobble by Sandy Gervais for Moda. It was so cute sitting there on the shelf that I could not resist!

I have been wanting to use the tutorial Camille posted at the Moda Bake Shop for quite some time now and this afternoon I thought, why not use the Gobble Gobble charm pack! I will have to go shopping for some fabric for the backing now but that should not be too hard ;-)

I pieced this together in a little over 1 hour this afternoon while my little boy talked to me and played around me in the dining room/sewing room. Now that I know how quick it goes together I think I will have to make a runner with fabric that matches my decor for every day to keep out on the table in the breakfast nook or on the island in the kitchen. I am going to practice my stippling quilting on this since it is not too big a piece.

What a fun project for a quiet Sunday afternoon. Go visit the tutorial and make your own!

Sunday Stash #1...

I was giddy with excitement last week when I FINALLY found some of the fabric Lush by Erin Michael for Moda, more specifically the paint by number deer fabric!!!! I am still awaiting the arrival of the deer in blues and greens - it should be at my doorstep no later than Tuesday. However, the other fabrics I ordered in the line arrived on Friday. I LOVE them! I am planning a special quilt with these.

Tamara over at 1/4 of an Inch hosts a 'Sunday Stash' each week. It gives peeps like me who love fabric to see what others have in their stash and to explore different color combos and projects that are planned with the fabrics. She also has a Flickr group with the pictures as well.

I thought I would play along this week since I am so excited about the newest addition to my stash!

Neapolitan Bouquet Quilt Complete!

*Photo courtesy of Corbis Stock Photos

Remember the Neapolitan Bouquet Quilt I was working on for my daughter? I blogged about it here and here. The pattern is from All Washed Up called Five and Dime. Well IT IS FINISHED! While the Princess was at her Grandmother's last week, I finally finished sewing the binding on her quilt! I am very pleased with it...and especially since it is my second quilt completed!

The back of the quilt is shown first as it illustrates why the name of the quilt:

Here is the top of the quilt:
I had it quilted in various flower patterns with dark pink thread:

Here is another shot of the backing...I just LOVE the texture the quilting gives to it:
And here is my sweetheart after I gave her the quilt all rolled up and tied with a ribbon! Now she and the Prince both have a special quilt from mommy to snuggle with while reading or watching T.V.:

Fall Quilts Sneak Peek

I am too busy having summer fun with my kiddos to blog! However, I am on today to give a sneak peek of two quilts I am making for fall. I have most of the pieces cut, enough now to get started as I am adding borders to a pattern so don't want to cut into the other fabric until I have the patterned pieces already sewn together.


And here is what my little guy was doing as I was cutting. He was finding a place for all the fabric scraps beneath the table and chairs...lil cutie!

So what do you think? I got the inspiration from Cami and the quilt she blogged about in January.

I'll let you know how it is coming along! Now back to our summer fun!!!

Neapolitan Bouquet Quilt

*Photo courtesy of Corbis Stock Photos

The ice cream above is what came to mind while piecing the top of the quilt for my daughter! The quilt top is in strawberry pinks, creamy vanillas, and chocolates with floral, stripes, and dots...so as my previous post stated, the name I thought of was 'Neapolitan Bouquet' for the quilt. With that in mind, I rethought how I wanted to piece the back of the quilt. What do you think?

Here is the quilt top all completed:

And here is the back of the quilt, all completed:
Viola! My daughter's 'Neapolitan Bouquet' quilt is ready to go to the long-arm quilters this week! I think we will quilt it with a flower quilting technique. Then I will bind it using the same floral focus fabric from the vertical strips on the quilt top. I can't wait to give this to my daughter for snuggling up under while watching a movie together. I made it wider than my last quilt so that two can snuggle easily under this one!

Oh, and my ever so lovely handmade bag/tote came today!!! I am so excited. It was made with beautiful Amy Butler fabrics from the ever talented Janie from Clutterbags on Etsy. I ordered the bag a few weeks ago and she did an excellent job! She even made me a custom diaper/wipes case to go with it that has a zipper closure and a removable wrist strap, making this little gem very versatile and perfect for growing with us and for carrying other things once we are out of diapers around here (which will hopefully be within the next few months!) Go visit her site and see her wonderful work!!! The pictures below do not do it justice and the bag is so much more beautiful in person!!!! I could not be happier with it!

Here is the bag/tote alone:Here is the bag along with the diaper/wipe case:

Also to note, our whole school district is closed this week due to the H1, N1 virus or Swine Flu. I am fortunate enough that this thrills me to have an unexpected week with both my kiddos home to just play and enjoy each others company, but I realize for many parents this is a hardship if they both have jobs outside of the home. I pray that the sick are healed and that the parents facing hardship due to school closures are comforted and that relief for all of this comes soon. Please keep our community and especially the sick in your prayers.

Latest WIP Quilt...

I started on a quilt for the Princess. It is a 'stack and whack' quilt so it should not take me too long to complete the top and backing. I chose an All Washed Up Pattern called 5&Dime. And look, I learned today that they have a blog! It uses a menagerie of fat quarters that you just stack and um...whack! You cut them up into a few varying sized squares and rectangles then you use a focus fabric for sashing in the middle and voila! I am adding a few borders to this one though to make it a bit bigger for my daughter to snuggle under and I am doing something a bit different than what the pattern calls for on the backing. So it is mostly this pattern with my own design and inspiration thrown in!

These are the fabrics I chose: Back Porch Bouquet for Maywood Studios. (The pink and chocolate damask on the right is from Joann's but I decided I did not like it with the other fabrics so I nixed it.)
Here is my layout for the quilt top without the borders:

The strip laid out on the left is part of what I have planned for the back:
I already have the top just about pieced. I had to order a bit more fabric for the borders I want to add and hope to have that fabric by the end of the week so I am crossing my fingers that I will have the top and the back complete over the weekend and have it ready to quilt early next week!

While sewing and ironing the pieces together last night I decided what I had to name this quilt: Neapolitan Bouquet! The colors remind me of the Neapolitan ice cream we would have as a kid. You know, the kind that came in the box with chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry lined up in rectangles...and in our house where the chocolate was always gone first ;-)

I'll update as I move along with this latest project!

Mod Quilt-Along Binding Almost Complete...

Well I have almost completed my first quilt! I have about half way to go on hand sewing the binding around to the back of the quilt. I probably would have been finished by now but I had oral surgery this week and it put me down for a few days. I am feeling better now and once I have caught up on necessary work around the house and for my business I will finish up this binding!

Top of the quilt with partial binding:

Back of the quilt with partial binding:

I have to say that I was most pleased that my corners turned out nice and mitered! Elizabeth had a great tutorial on the binding and I praise her greatly for helping me in having my first quilt turn out so nicely!

I can't wait to finish the quilt and wash it up so it gets a crinkly, comfy look and Drew and I can curl up with it and watch cartoons!

Mod Quilt-Along Quilt is Quilted...

Here is a picture of the top of the quilt all quilted! I still have to bind it and so you see the white batting showing around all edges. I am binding it with a navy blue fabric that has little gold stars on it.And here is the back quilted, again, you can see the white batting on the side as it is without binding:

I went ahead and had the quilt quilted by a professional as I just love it too much to use it for trying out my hand and machine quilting for the first time. I took the quilt in for a quote on Tuesday and to my surprise the woman at the shop said she would get right on it that day! She said a 'first time quilt' deserved to be done right away! So, I picked it up all quilted on Wednesday!!! I am so happy with it. I imagined as I was working on this quilt that if I was an experienced quilter that I would quilt it using a dog bone pattern for some whimsy and visual interest. I walked in the quilters shop ready to get the quote and tell her to just use a stippling quilting pattern since that is what the Quilt-Along is using but she said to me, "Oh, I have something that I think would go perfect with this quilt." Can you imagine my surprise when she showed me quilting of DOGGIE BONES along with profiles of dogs that look like labs!!! Wow, was that meant to be or what!?!

Can you see the profile of the doggie below. He is on the left side of the picture and his nose is up in the air some facing to the left. His ear is in the center of the bottom left brown square:

Here is a better shot perhaps. The doggie is in the brown and this time he is facing towards the right. His nose is in the air and he is looking up at a dog bone:

So now I just have to follow along in the Quilt-Along to bind the quilt. Then it will be finished and ready to give to my son!

There are lots of great finished quilt pictures rolling in at the Mod Sampler Quilt-Along group on Flickr site so go take a look!

Mod Quilt-Along Back Complete!!!

I DID IT!!!!

I completed the back of the quilt for the Quilt-Along today! I LOVE it. Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson was such a help and good guide through the project! I am quite pleased since this was my first time to attempt anything like this. You can see the other finished pieces at the Flickr site.

My little boy, for whom the quilt is for, was helping me this morning as I finished the back. He found a great new use for my sewing rulers! Roads! He was making roads and driving his little cars over them...it was precious!