what I'm up to

I've been making lots of new baby blankets for my shop.... I was part of an awesome pincushion swap at The Quilt Asylum. This is the pincushion I made... And these are the adorable pincushions I came home with!

Stephanie made these fantastic little mice. Check out the yoyos on their backsides:

I've been working away at pressing and folding more of my stash. The shelves are filling up!

I'm looking forward to a sewing day with my small group, Seams like Sisters, on Saturday. Hope you've been finding some creative time too.

Valentine's Day is coming

My online scrabble buddy and good friend, Helaine, sent me these awesome Valentine's Day suckers and some peppermint bark for the holiday! yummy! Check out the Valentine suckers, made with little candy canes, melted chocolate & sprinkles! Awesome.

truth be told, I took these pictures several days ago. The candy stash has diminished since then. Just sayin....

Today Ally prepared Valentine goodies for her friends. Chocolate dipped strawberries and pretzels....

Don't they look yummy too? Lucky for me, they are all tied neatly in cellophane bags ready to deliver. No chance of Mom taking a nibble. This is a good thing!

What are you doing for Valentine's Day this year?

a quilt finish

First off, I have to ask. Is there a website you all use to edit your photos? For free, I mean. Because I have been using Picnik to edit mine for months, but now they are shutting down. I guess if you use Google+ it will be available there, but honestly, I do not need another social media site to keep track of (sorry Google+, I'm sure you're wonderful). I don't have a fancy camera & I'm not a fabulous photographer, but Picnik has always allowed me to make my photos look good. What to do? Hoping you all have the answer.

Anyways, today I finished up this sweet baby quilt...

I used Villa Rosa Designs "Gypsy" pattern and a layer cake of Moda's Berenstein Bears fabric. I love how colorful and happy it turned out! Also, this is the first decent sized quilt that I have quilted myself on my Janome. I used straight lines, on the diagonal, 1 1/2 inches apart and I think it turned out pretty good! I do think if I am going to attempt to quilt anything bigger than this I need a quilting machine with a bigger throat. Hmmm.... maybe it's time to start researching? I mean, I love my basic Janome, but there are some things I could do better on a different machine.

Here's the back of the quilt:

Who knew that I would get such a sunny, gorgeous day to take pictures in the middle of February? This is my kind of winter...

ticker tape blocks 13 and 14

so, the colors for our February ticker tape blocks were assigned on Friday, and by Saturday afternoon I had them done! mint green and pale blue. Not two colors I have a lot of in my stash I must say. This took some digging and some imagination.

several bluebonnets fabrics made it into my pale blue block. And I love the pencils!

Mint green was tough. Some of mine are very pale, others a bit dark, but I think it works altogether.

Ten more blocks to go...

another UFO finished

I've been working every day at tidying up my sewing space. I'm totally reorganizing the space, switching things around, so it's taking a while. One thing that bothered me before is that all of my fabric was in plastic tubs in a closet where I couldn't see it. So, little by little, I am folding and sorting my fabric and putting it onto my bookshelves (which means that my magazines are all piled on the floor waiting to be sorted into the plastic bins, but I won't show you that mess!)

Here are my shelves so far.... While I am cleaning, I keep finding unfinished projects tucked here & there. Instead of storing them away, I am trying to finish them up as I go! Today's project was a birthday gift LAST YEAR! I did do all the piecing a year ago, but since then it has been waiting patiently for me to quilt and bind it.

Here's my problem. I need to take a machine quilting class. I love piecing but have never really learned what to do next. I have a walking foot AND a darning foot, I know the basics, but I need to learn more. Well, I have decided that I should just barge ahead with some of the smaller project and straight(ish) line quilt them on my machine. I'm really happy I went ahead and finished this one up in time for Valentine's Day!

The pin cushion is for a swap at The Quilt Asylum in a couple of weeks and the basket is from my basket making days. I just thought it looked cute for the photo shoot. Wow, it's only Wednesday & I have already finished up my "One Thing" for the week! What are you working on?

this and that

Yesterday my very first birthday gift arrived in the mail! My birthday isn't until Sunday, but Maria must have mailed this extra early because it came all the way from Australia... Look at those adorable buttons! Hats on a hatstand... not sure where they will end up eventually but for now they are pinned up on my inspiration board making me smile. The owl is a sweet cross stitch kit, so cute! And some labels for future quilts... even the card with the bright beach scenes made me smile! Lucky Maria to be enjoying summertime where she is (not that I can complain! It's been a very mild winter in Texas.) Thank you Maria!

Meanwhile, I've been stitching away. All of my blocks (98 of them) for the upcoming block swap are finished, tucked neatly into their ziploc bags. And this morning I finished up the borders on my Birdie Stitches Quilt...

I opted to go with three solids. The big polka dot I had bought was just too busy, so I will use it on the back of the quilt. I like how the pink, lime green and royal blue frame out the quilt. Thanks for the suggestion, Joellen, you were right!

Sorting and cleaning continues in my sewing room. I promise to take some pictures when I get it all neat and tidy. Amazing how much of a mess I can make when I clean. Sheesh...

Happy Monday Friends!

Crumb blocks

Yesterday, Joellen & I took a liberated piecing class at The Quilt Asylum. We learned to make crumb blocks. And I made 18! (yes, I did enjoy this method very much!) Don't worry, I don't intend to sew them all together like this! That would be a tad busy, don't you think? I haven't decided if I will sash them and put them all into one quilt (maybe something a bit modern?), or maybe break them up & make some mug rugs from them? For now they are stacked neatly in one of my recently emptied scrap drawers in my ever evolving sewing room.

You might be wondering what, exactly, a crumb block is? Well I was prepared to explain it all to you here, then I saw this awesome post on Knitty Bitties with a tutorial for crumb blocks! Timing is everything! Jodi from Pleasant Home had linked to Knitty Bitties yesterday as part of her scrappy January event. Why recreate the wheel, I say! So head on over & read their posts. Go on... I'll still be here when you get back...

Pretty cool, huh? And imagine doing this with a group of ladies! Many of us dumped all of our scraps into a big community bucket so we had more to choose from (no, I didn't take a picture of the bucket. yes, I did take my camera. Baby steps people). There was lots of laughing, lots of sewing, and yes, lots of crumb blocks made! The really cool thing is how different everyone's blocks were. You see, with liberated piecing there are NO RULES! Blocks could be any size (mine are all 6 1/2 inches), pieces could be any size... you get the picture!

Some of my blocks were mostly polka dots...
Joellen was making all of her blocks 3 1/2 inches with tiny scraps, then sewing four together to make 6 1/2 inch blocks! They were so pretty I had to try one that way...

wow! That one block took a long time to make. You know me, fast is better.... but I'm glad I tried this once.

Be watching for these crumb blocks to appear in a finished item somewhere down the road...