New Years Eve

Hello Everyone,

Happy New Year! I can't believe today is the last day of 2013. Like so many others, I feel this year has just gone by waaaay too quickly!

I was able to get my Christmas quilting finished in time :) But I was in a rush to get them mailed, so did not take finished pictures of them. Sigh~ I have asked the recipient to get pictures of them too me, so hopefully I can show them to you soon.

The one Christmas gift I made that I DO have pictures for, you will have to wait till Jan 9th to see it. It is my project for the Kona blog hop, and my day is the 9th. So I hope you all come back and see what I made. You can find the full schedule here.



As for the New Year, I don't do resolutions, but I do like to make goals. At the beginning of 2013, I told you my goal for the year was to get some of these quilted.

This is just a small portion of the quilt tops that I need to quilt. Well, I did not quilt ONE of these tops!! Instead I made new projects and learned how to free motion quilt.

So, my goal again for this year, is to start getting this pile of tops, turned into quilts. We'll see if I can manage to do a few at least :)

What about you? Do you make resolutions? or goals, or both?

Have a Happy New Year, I hope it's full of good things for you. And thank  you readers, for sticking around. I hope to have more quilting and designing going on this year. I also hope to start putting a pattern or two out there for sell. We shall see what the year brings!

Merry Christmas

Wishing you and yours, a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

May your day be filled with Family, friends, food... and some fabric :)

Thanks so much for reading my little blog and keeping me company.

 http://thesmashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/free_christmas_vectors_download_christmas_vector_images_and_art_free-15.jpg

Christmas quilting

Hello Everyone,

Are you ready? Just a week to go. My 9yr old is bouncing off the walls. We have some decorations up. We have our tree picked out (we'll be cutting it down off our own place), but wont cut it and put it up till this weekend. I have a feeling my toddler will be a big nuisance with it. He loves the lights and pretty colored balls.

I have got some of my Christmas sewing done. Here's just a small snippet of a picture.

 

Here's something else I've been working on. I wont be able to show you the finished product till January though. It's my project for the Kona solids hop.

The picture isn't true to the colors. They are rich, vibrant purples and bright, almost neon orange and lime green.

Boxes are coming in by mail and we have shopping to do on Friday. Getting down to the wire.

Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season.

December catchup

Good morning Everyone!

Didn't mean to be silent for so long. The days are just flying by so quickly. Yet it seems that I get nothing accomplished. Some Christmas decorating has been done. And I really want to start making some special holiday cookies, just haven't done so yet.

Although I have been practicing my fmqing, on some Christmas gifts.

I have a long way to go before I am any good. But I'm having fun...

And thats what is important right? Just keep practicing...

I got my first set of X and + blocks from Pat :)

And we got our first snowfall of the Winter. Isaiah had a great time walking around looking at things that are half buried.

He liked to sit in it for awhile too. And then he had a snowball fight with 2 of his siblings :) And yes, he does have mittens ;)

I hope to come back soon and so you some more stuff I'm working on.

Have a great day!

 

ALOYF November goal.... FINISHED!

And just under the wire too ;)

Hello Everyone! Yah, Jeds quilt is finally done. Yesterday, I was saying that I didn't have any fabrics for the binding. Well, I looked again, and decided that since next week we are getting our first storm of the season, it's going to get in the 20s over night with snow!!, that Jed needed his new quilt.

I'm so glad I decided to go with this binding. I love it!

It compliments the quilt perfectly  I think.

I love that gray fabric in the middle. It's from V&Co's simply color line.

And here's the back. I'll use the hexagon as a label.

And one more.

I have a lot more to say about this quilt. But for now, I have to run... and get this posted. Here is my Nov goal post.





Have a great day!

Friendship X and + swap

Good morning Everyone,

I finally have a bit of sewing to show you :) This is the first bit of fabric I pulled for the Friendship swap Pat and I are doing. I am using bits and pieces, a strip or two here, a couple of squares there. With a few FQ's thrown in. There is a lot of favorite fabrics going into this swap, which I just have bits of. I hope my selection is ok with you Pat :) I will, of course, be adding to the pile as I use these up.

The best way for me to make these blocks is to cut up a bunch of fabric and put them in my basket.

Then when I find a few minutes of time to sew thruout the day, I can just grab some squares and start sewing. This also helps me, a little bit, with the controlling aspect of scrappy blocks ;)

I haven't had a chance to trim these up yet. But I'll get that done today, and then I can get them in the mail! I thought I was going to be late mailing on our first blocks. But... I pieced these yesterday instead of putting binding on Jed's quilt.

The reason for that?? Weeelll... I didn't buy enough fabric for the binding too! You would think with a house full of boys, that I would have more boy fabric in my stash... But I don't! Guess I'm selfish that way ;) lol

I am hoping to find something today in my stash that I can make work though. As I would love to get my November goal finished.

Have a great weekend. And if you're crazy enough to be out shopping today, good luck to you! I'll be staying home.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope your day is full of good food, family, friends... and maybe a bit of fabric ;)

I do have a few quilty items to talk about, need to get pictures first. So I'll be back tomorrow!

 

A few things..

Hello All,

The days and weeks just seem to be flying by. I can't believe it's the middle of Nov already. My toddler keeps me pretty busy. He's taking forever to bring in his baby teeth, and is pretty clingy because of it. So we spend a lot of time outdoors, keeping him busy. I don't know what we'll do when it's too cold to spend hours outside at a time.

My Dear Friend Pat and I have joined Carla  and Susan's fun friendship swap.

Pat and I are going with a throw size quilt. In scrappy colors of gray, pink, blue, green, yellow, purple, and orange. This will be hard for me. I am a controlled scrappy type person, so I will try to just have fun with this and not be too controlling in my placement of colors.

Pat already has her blocks done for this month. I need to start on mine. So no pics yet.

~~~~~

Another fun thing for next year is a new Round Robin going on over at the Q&N. We had skipped doing one this year, but a few of us have decided to do it next year. We'll be making bed sized quilts. I can't wait to get started, I love RR's!  I need to get my medallion made.

~~~~

And I am happy to say, that I am almost finished with J's quilt! 

I bet you are all happy about that, so I stop blogging about it ;) LOL. Then I really need to start some Christmas sewing!

Have a great day all!

For the Boys!

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to those of you coming over from Samms wonderful blog hops. A big thank you to Samm and our great hostess, Amy , for another great blog hop.

I have three boys, and have had many boy fabrics come and go thru the house. Lots of vehicles and machines. As my oldest and youngest sons love them.

But my middle boy is an animal lover. And his favorite animal is a Dinosaur... of course! They were big, and powerful and LOUD and ferocious.

Carson is 9, and hasn't had a quilt made for him since he was a baby. So it was time.

When I asked him if he would like some of the great robot fabrics in his quilt, he told me no,it had to be dinosaurs, and 'real' looking ones at that. No cute, frilly ones ;) LOL

There isn't a whole lot of 'real' looking dinosaur fabric out there. But I did find a few. Mostly these 'tossed' dino's, which makes it a bit hard to come up with a pattern for them. As they are hard to fussy cut and I don't do applique very often.

I used up quite a few pages of paper, trying to find the right design to show case the tossed dino's, along with this repeating panel.

My best Friend Carol suggested that I make the blocks crooked, so it looks like they've been thrown down. Perfect! It was just the idea I needed. As I had 3 different size blocks I was working with.

I also used some of this beautiful Kona solids jelly roll, to brighten things up. Along with a Shadowland piece from Kona Bay. I thought it was perfect for dino's. And another piece of Kona solid.

Here's Pine, our barn cat, following along on my photo shoot.

The quilt is a bit bigger than Carson, so I'm sure he'll outgrow it within a few years. 

I had fun with the borders. I even mitered them.

This quilt is waiting in line.

It will be next, after I finish my First boys quilt. It's about halfway done, you can read more about it here, and here.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Don't forget to see all the other great projects on the blog hop. Here's who I am sharing my day with:

Amy's Crafty Shenanigans

Ridge Top Quilts

Creatin' in the Sticks

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Meadowbrook

Malinis Quilts

Just Let Me Quilt

                                                            Kris Loves Fabric





 Thanks for stopping by.

Dorian

For the Boys blog hop

Good morning All,

Just a quick note to let you know the For the Boys blog hop (another great hop thought up by Samm over at Sew We Quilt!) starts tomorrow, Nov 6th!

My day on the hop is Nov 7th, so come on back and see what I'm making for my 9yo son.

Here's the full list of bloggers participating:

November 6^th

Vrooman's Quilts

Sew Many Yarns

Young Texan Mama

Baa’s Amazing Adventures!

Little Mushroomcap

Threading My Way

Sarah Scholz and Chasing Unicorns

Quilt Doodle Designs

November 7^th

Amy's Crafty Shenanigans

Ridge Top Quilts

Creatin' in the Sticks

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Meadowbrook

Malinis Quilts

Just Let Me Quilt

Kris Loves Fabric

November 8^th

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Made By Me in Red

Freemotion by the River

Val's Quilting Studio

Tomorrow's Treasures Today

The Stitchin’ Post

The Nosy Pepper

The Reluctant Quilter

Quilting, Losing & Tea

 November 11^th

Jane's Quilting

Pieces By Polly

how Art you

Selina Quilts  

Upcycled Fabric

BQuiltin Studio

In The Boon Docks

Gemini Stitches

Secretly Stitching

 

November 12^th

Pig Tales and Quilts

CeLynn's Sunflower Patch

rainbows.bunnies.cupcakes

Devoted Quilter

Desertsky Quilting

Sew Fresh Quilts

Red Letter Quilts

Craft Nurse Quilt

Miss Priss Quilts

November 13^th

Dachsies with Moxie

Patchouli Moon Studio

It Seams to Be Sew....

Scrappy n Happy

Loves to Quilt 

Michelle's Romantic Tangle

Factotum of Arts 

Jackie's Art Quilts

Living with purpose

November 14^th

I like to QuiltBlog

Marjorie's Busy Corner

My Fabric Relish

Feathered Nest Studios

Moose Stash Quilting

QuiltnQueen

Grandmama's Stories

Our Busy Little Bunch

Words and Stitches

 

November 15^th 

Everyone Deserves a Quilt

From This to That 

Monkey Makes Three

Just Quilt It  

Life, Quilts and a Cat too

Thimblemouse and Spouse 

More Stars in Comanche

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Sew We Quilt

 

Nov goal setting...ALYOF

Hello, hello,

November already! Are you getting your Christmas gifts made? Sigh~ I haven't even started.

My November goal is easy though, finish J's quilt! I hear we are in for a rough winter, and I want to get his quilt done so he can use it.

<  


 

Oct goal completed!

Hello Folks,

Can you believe it's the end of Oct already??! I can't. It's just amazing how quickly the time is going.

On my goal setting post the beginning of Oct, I said that I wanted to get at least half way thru the quilting on J's quilt.

I am almost done with the straight line quilting. I just have one hexagon row to go.

And one day when I wanted to do something other than straight line quilting, I started on the FMQing.

I'm doing these connecting boxes in the background pieces.

A star in the hexagons. I'm not sure what I am doing in the middle of the triangles just yet.

But I think I've certainly hit the halfway mark :)

 So next month I really want to get this finished up. It's starting to get quite chilly at nights.

Thanks Shanna and Melissa!

Bloggers quilt festival

Hello Folks,

It's time again for the Blogger Quilt Festival, put on by Amy every year. There are always awesome prizes and gorgeous eye candy to look at. Voting has started, so go over and pick your favorites.

I'm entering my Lone star that I made for our Paint Chip Challenge over on the Q&N. This challenge required us to make a project using one to three of the colors on a paint chip card. My colors are the beige/taupe ones.

I did some straight line quilting in the star.

And I did free motion roses in the background.

 

It's 42" square.

 I quilted it on my Singer 201 vintage sewing machine. I am brand new to FMQing, and pretty new to quilting altogether on a home machine. I was a hand quilter for many years. So this is a fun, new challenge for me and I am really loving it.

Thanks Amy!