My Productive Weekend!

Scott and Kyle have been away this weekend on a fun daddy/son trip. I took full advantage of the opportunity to craft my little heart out!

I was able to finish the top and quilt a quilt that I started a week or so ago. I can't say it is completely done, because I am still finishing the hand-sewing part of the binding, but you get the gist! I got the pattern and inspiration from the Moda Bake Shop (http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/02/bettys-baby-bowtie-quilt.html) I thought the quilt was adorable but didn't love the colors they chose. I went with a different charm pack...Snippets, and fit the base colors more to my liking. The quilt is going to be a gift for someone, but it's a secret!The instructions suggested to do a grid pattern for the actual quilting, but I didn't love the look, so I went with a big stipple instead. I just stitched in the ditch around the small red border, and then in the yellow border did a fun loopty-flowery pattern.

I also took the time to do some scrapbooking. Another favorite past-time of mine! I didn't get a ton done, but enough to fully enjoy myself and make a big ole' mess of the kitchen table!

It's been a fun productive weekend!

Ribbit!

One of my latest nap-time projects!!

This frog was SO much fun to make! It was a quick project that I literally finished during one of Kyle's nap-times.

Teresa - thanks for sharing your pattern with me. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be the sewer/quilter that I am today without all of your inspiration. Thanks for turning me over to the 'dark side!'

Mom - does the material look familiar? I LOVE that you pass me down your scraps and left-overs. Thanks for keeping me going with lots of fun scraps.

What was fun about this project was that it mixed piecing, quilting, and sewing all into one project. I think this is going to be the new baby's (due in early June!) first stuffed animal.

Side note...My sister-in-law Teresa fill hers with the little hard plastic beady things that you would fill bean bags with. I SEARCHED around here for that stuff and couldn't find it. I ended up filling my frog with the little micro-bead poly-fill foam balls. It made a horrendous mess, but after cleaning up a few times with my vacuum all is well and I am super pleased with the outcome. Because of the light weight of the filler I used, it'll be way more suitable for a small child's toy.

A fun give-away

Hey ladies! So you know the fun website that I mentioned in my last blog? I hope that you have checked it out. Anywho, they announced a selvage give-away, and I wanted to pass along the info to you! You can either click on the 'Selvage Blog' on my 'Blog List' or go directly to this site to check it out: http://modalissa.blogspot.com/2009/03/selvages-tell-story.html Maybe one of us will be lucky enough to win. Now that I am all excited about doing some 'selvage' projects it would be nice to have a little bigger stash to work with!

Great idea for going more 'green'

Check out this website... http://www.selvageblog.blogspot.com/
Seriously? The projects are AWESOME!! I never once thought to hang on to my all my selvage edges. I can't even begin to imagine how many yards and yards of selvage I have tossed. I will DEFINITELY start hanging on to them now. I can't wait to start trying some of these selvage projects.

Ribbon Skirt

I saw something like this around Christmas time, and I have been SO excited to have an excuse to try to make one myself. With one little boy and another one on the way, little girl skirts are something we just have no need for in our house :). Lucky for me one of Kyle's best friends is an adorable little girl who just turned 4 and is having a birthday party this Saturday! FINALLY a legitimate reason to try my hand at making a ribbon skirt. (We're coupling it with a cute fru-fru white shirt and white leggings, and some matching hair-bows that I am going to make.) I am super pleased with how it turned out. Not only does it make a plain denim skirt colorful and fun, but it adds a little length to it to make it just that much more modest. - Hopefully we can get Hannah to put on the outfit so that I can take a picture of it in action!

I didn't follow any set of directions to make the skirt, just kind of figured it out on my own. If you'd like to duplicate it and can't figure it out, leave me a comment and I can walk you through it. It'd call it a beginner/innermediate project. Not necessarily hard, just time consuming.

It's here! I can hardly believe it. I can't imagine needing another sewing machine in my life time!

When I came across a deal for this new Bernina 430E it was seriously too good to be true. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. (Although my husband may disagree!) We've been talking for a while about me getting a new machine with all the 'bells and whistles'...I figured it would be another year or two before it happened though. Anyway, long story short, the UPS man brought it to my door today!

A GINORMOUS thank you is in order to Scott, my sweet hubby, who understands me and what makes me happy. The good news is that you've got birthday's and Christmas' covered for at least the next three years! I Love you...and I Love my new 'toy'.

Sharin' the Love!

I am so thrilled to finish this quilt that I can hardly stand it! Truth be told, this has been over two years in the making. It's been one of those projects that I've started and stopped a million times and always had something else take precedence over it. One of my new years resolutions was to finish THIS quilt... WAHOO! Goal accomplished!

Other than a quick quilt made for my son, this is the first quilt that I have EVER made to keep for myself! I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I LOVE IT!! The greatest thing about this quilt is that it has material on it from all over the world, literally. I know for certain that there is material from Cozumel, Mexico (I bought while on vacation), Egypt (my best buddy's husband brought home from a business trip for his wife and I), Annapolis MD, Laurel MD, and West Jordan UT. Also, the very first "real" quilt that I ever made was for my Best Friend, Jamie, as a wedding gift. There are a handful of scraps from her wedding quilt in here too! It has lots of fun memories, truly a quilt to treasure.

Quilting this specific quilt was a blast! I tried some new things and LOVED the outcome. All the light colored material was stippled. On the hearts I did a fun curly-q stitch (I think you can kind of see it on the last picture). The small plaid border had a loopy stitch, and then on the large red border I quilted the word 'love' over and over. SO MUCH FUN!

For anyone who may be interested the pattern I used is called... Ragged Hearts by Homespun Quilts (Designed by Anna Laura Reidt. Code HQ 105 (I borrowed it from my awesome sister-in-law)