The cutest Pachyderm around!

I've made a whole herd of these cuties over the past two months.
Lots of color combinations.Lots of fiber fill.
Lots of smiles!

I found the original pattern and tutorial here, on the Riley Blake Designs Blog. I instantly fell in love. Of course, in my haste to make so many and get them in the mail as gifts I managed to only get a picture of one of them.

Not all of them came with a story, but I was 'on one' the day 'Punja' found her new home. She was made for an adorable neighbor of mine who saw the first elephant I made and had the guts to ask me to make one for her too. The elephant was left on the doorstep of her house with this note attached about her 'journey' to Abbey's house. It was fun. Abbey loves her elephant and takes it to school in her backpack almost every day to school!

{Excited}

Do you ever have a project that you are just so excited to start that you can hardly stand it?

I have one of those projects on the horizon!

Not that I don't still have plenty of other posts and photos to share of my past projects, but I have to share my excitement some where. I figure since this is my blog than it is okay to ramble a bit, right?

I am patiently (okay, not so patiently) waiting for a package in the mail from the Fat Quarter Shop. (Side note: totally not being paid to say this, but I LOVE shopping online at the Fat Quarter Shop! I'm a regular!) I'm making my first quilt from this book...

(The Modern Quilting Bee - block party)

You have seen this book before, right? If not, you are missing out! I am in love with the improv trend in quilting, it's kind of my thing right now. This book gives lots of great examples of 'improv' quilts with easy to follow directions to get the look your going for. There are 12 'patterns' to jump start your creativity. Awesome.

I'm making this quilt for my friend, in trade for her awesome photography skilz! I think what I am most excited about is the color pallet... Greys, blacks, creams, whites, and yellows. I think it's going to be divine!

Enough rambling...off to go clear off my sewing 'to-do' list and clean up my cutting table so that I can get to work as soon as the package arrives!

Chenille

One of my favorite projects of 2011? I'd say yes. This was definitely in the top 10!

A very good friend of mine had a baby girl, and I knew I wanted to make her something special. I wanted to do something different than I've ever done, so that I could learn a new technique. I came across a great tutorial on Pinterest (here) for making 'Heirloom Cheenille Baby Blankets.' It was just the 'cool & unique' that I was looking for!Whew! It was a labor of love, but the outcome was fabulous. I honestly can't wait to make another! I was prepared, yet still shocked at how much thread it took to sew so many lines. This quilt took me as long to make (actually even a little longer) than most of my pieced infant quilts.
Once all finished and given it's first wash and dry, the texture of this blanket is DELICIOUS! No other word can describe it's yumminess!Making one of these quilts is not difficult, just time consuming. If you can sew somewhat of a straight line, than whipping one up is easy as pie. I'd give it a 'Beginner Sewer' rating, as long as said beginner can be patient and avoid going cross-eyed from sewing line after line!