Sister's birthday present....check!

To say that my sister loves horses is a giant understatement. She. LOVES. horses. And a while ago my mom gave me a horse applique pattern that I started right away. Needless to say, that applique took a day to trace, about 5 minutes to iron on, and about six months to cut out! :) One night I was tired of shifting the blue horse part around my quilting room and I sat down, cut the rest out, ironed it on to the background, quilted it, bound it, and then put the hanging sleeve on. To top it off I used a batik on the back that has horses printed on it! To cut out some of it I cheated and used a 18mm rotary cutter for the mostly straight parts.


The spool is just to show the general size. She can either use it for a table topper or hang it up on the wall!


Hopefully she likes it. She lives out in Wyoming and has a couple horses, so I thought this would be neat to put on her wall.

Home-made retreat

How many of you would go to every quilting retreat you could....except you can't afford them? I'm one of you. I'd LOVE to go to every quilting retreat I could find, except my pocketbook would absolutely hate me. It'd probably pack up and leave me high and dry. So, with that foot being put down, I decided to call one of my friends from college (whom I tought to quilt), my mom, and my great aunt and see if they wanted to join in and have a retreat on our own! It finally happened last weekend, December 10th to the 12th!!!

My mom and aunt both had Pinafore purses cut out, and they had a blast getting motivation from each other through their "ordeal". From the time they began sewing, it probably took them a good 10-12 hours...but there was TONS of laughing involved! :)


I was able to begin a quilt for my friend that's having a baby. It matches the burp clothes I made her!


This is my quilting friend from college, Kristi. A few years ago we went into a quilt shop near where we went to college and she bought this batik kit! And the top is finally finished!


When I was in a quilt guild last year I joined in a block exchange and these blocks I made into a wall hanging for my quilting room. The binding is finally on!

Three people sewed at the table, and then my mom had the island and we put the cutting mat next to her.

This of course was the very same weekend it decided to snow two feet in Eau Claire, Wisconsin! My friend and I loved it though!!! Except for getting up by 5:00 am to go out and shovel the sidewalk all the way to our cars. This is Kristi, I'm shoveling in the background. We had 1 shovel between 3 people....so we took shifts! :)


When it finally stopped snowing, this is what the driveway looked like....there are two Buicks under there somewhere! :) I LOVE THAT MUCH SNOW!!! And here in Milwaukee it rained over an inch when it snowed over two feet in Eau Claire! I'm not sure what I like more, quilting, or playing in this much snow!

Turtle Batik Quilt

Well here I am once again, with another finished product and the voracious appetite to keep quilting. But since I'm half way through my next project, I figured I'd better post my last quilt before it becomes lost in my quilting room and files of quilting photos on my computer! :)



It's a pattern idea I made up off of one of the Moda Bake Shop patterns. If you want to see the one I based this quilt off of, click here. This one is approximately 62x65 inches, so it's perfect for a large lap quilt! And the friend that I'm giving this to really doesn't like pastels, so I tried to use all bright colors, and for my second all-batik quilt, I think it turned out rather well! It was quick, easy, and I like the look of it and it gave me a chance to show off all the turtles in the fabric!!!

I've been a pillow case making machine lately. Why? I have no idea. But it's a good way to use up some of my stash! I made Scott a pirate one and I have the Wicked Witch! :)

My Grandpa's Quilt

Well, I finally have it completed. After over a year of buying fabric, cutting, and sewing blocks and such, I finally have it finished! Sunday I picked it up from the quilt shop and slapped the binding on it! The finished size is 66" x 80". My Grandpa is a tall man! :)


I have to say I'm a fan of the tilted nine patches. I wasn't sure how I felt about them when I first made them, but I really would like to make something with them again! Maybe this next time I'll put them together without sashing. For those of you who don't know me all that well, don't hold your breath. When I say I'm going to do a project, it means in my lifetime, not in the next month or so! :)

I had fish quilted on it to match one of the creme prints. And my Grandpa used to love to fly fish, and still loves to go fishing every chance he gets, even up to Lake of the Woods in Canada!

The flannel on the back makes it super comfy!!! I hope he likes it!


Who else is swamped making crafty/quilty things for Christmas? Are you going to do it again next year? Last year I said "never again".....well.....sure enough, I'm back at it. :)

It's just around the corner!

Well, hunting season is just around the corner. Yesterday my dad, Scott and I put up our stands for next weekend. The woods is REALLY wet! I had my tall hunting boots on, my wool pants and my coat and we were soaked by the time we were finished! Although it didn't help that it rained the entire time. When we were walking out we saw a bunch of wolf tracks. There were at least 5 different sets. Great.....

This morning the snow was falling lightly and it covered the trees and was beautiful!!! Although I'm sure when the wind picks up it'll blow off. I sure miss living up North!

I've been on a roll!!!

Well, since I've turned our second bedroom into my quilting studio, I've punched out a few baby burp cloths (as seen in my previous post), a laptop bag, a fall table runner, a wall hanging from a block exchange from my last years quilt guild, and a lap quilt for my grandpa...which is twin size because he's super tall! :) And I'm in the middle of another quilt that's for a person who will have to remain nameless for the time being, just in case she's reading this! :)

A couple months ago I took a co-worker to the quilt shop I work at and we took an hour to pick out two green fabrics! :) I had a great time though! It was actually really fun to get another person's ideas when she doesn't quilt! Here's the fabrics she came up with for her laptop bag....

And I should note that I came up with the general pattern from the Crafty Gemini and then made my own adjustments from there! Thanks Gemini! :) I used a couple of recycled plastic buttons for the closure and then sewed hair ties in the binding and looped them over the buttons! The last photo is the truest color.




The wall hanging was a set of 8 blocks (9 including my own) that I just threw together and am going to hang on my wall to replace some plain white wall in my new studio!

My grandpa's quilt is something that I started over a year ago but just finished up the other day. It's at the shop being quilted at the moment, as well as the wall hanging. I'll add photos once they're finished!

Just as a teaser I'll throw this photo in.... It's my scraps from a batik quilt that I've started for a friend. I'm pretty excited about it, and it's coming together quickly! Hopefully I'll have it done before hunting season so that it can be quilted by December....but we'll see.

It's baby time!

One of my coworker friends just told me this week that she's pregnant!!! Congratulations Momma Jess and Papa Tony!!! :) Well that night I went to Target and bought some of the cloth diapers to use for burp cloths. Then I dug through my stash and bought an 1/8th yard of the animal fabric to accent them! I picked the animals and the jungle vines and the giraffe print because they're decorating their nursery in the jungle theme! :)


They're super cute and super easy!

New York City!!!

I went to New York City on Tuesday and Wednesday and saw as much as humanly possible. My friend and I walked around and put on over five miles on Tuesday and saw Central Park, 5th Avenue, and TONS of other stuff including Times Square!!!


Wednesday we got up early and were on the first ferry to Liberty Island! That was really neat! We sure got our $12 worth!!!


And after all of that, on our way back to the airport on Wednesday, my friend let me stop at the City Quilter quilt shop. I say "let" in the best sense of the word. She waited patiently while the lady cut my fabric and laughed when she totaled it all up! :) The only thing that was odd was that the store was open, but we had to ring a doorbell and be buzzed in!


It was really neat in there and I wish I had more time to look around, but the airlines wait for no one. I'll go back someday though! For all those thousands of people, they only had that one quilt shop!!! Huh! Weird!

I went and visited my cousin in DeKalb, Illinois, and dragged her into a quilt shop. As it turned out, she found an applique pattern that she fell in love with and bought. She's started on the tracing of the fusible web, and is in the process of gathering the perfect fabrics! :) Me on the other hand, I bought some fabric (Spirit by Lila Tueller for Moda, and a few coordinates).





And then a "patternlet" by The Wooden Bear Quilt Designs. It's a penguin on a hand towel. I couldn't resist going through my stash when I got home and making one! He's super easy and super cute!!! And it helps that I found a great place for hand towels and the white flour towels as well! I love his beady little eyes.....

Look for another blog soon! I'm headed to New York City this coming Tuesday and Wednesday and have plans to visit the City Quilter!!! :)

Shop hopping in Illinois!

Well, I HAD to go to Illinois the last couple days. A couple of friends were getting married...the ones I made the black, white and red quilt for! :) Their wedding was beautiful! I thought Northern Illinois was ALL corn. As it turns out, I'm 99.9% right, but at Starved Rock it was beautiful caves, cliffs, and tons of trees!!! I highly recommend hiking there if you are trying to kill time! :)

Anyhow, before the wedding I had an entire day to kill! The ceremony was at 4:30, so I took myself up to Rockford, IL to a few quilt shops, and as it turns out they were having a shop hop! Fantastic!!! So...here's what I ended up buying....
I bought some random Kansas Troubles fabric for a log cabin that I'm collecting for. A few patterns, including a Christmas tree one, a watermelon log cabin, and a Mexican star pattern. A few other random yards of stuff, and then a kit (in the plastic kit bag) for a neat ice skating table runner by Atkinson Design.

What have you bought lately? :)

WI Quilt Expo

Well, today my friend Kate and I went over to Madison to the Wisconsin Quilt Expo....and boy did we have a good time! We got through the whole expo in about 3 hours, and saw lots of quilts with itty bitty pieces! We thought of Jen the whole time, lots of crazy small paper piecing with one inch squares, or 1/2 inch strips and using salvage edges!

Here's a few pictures of some of the quilts we saw and how tiny the pieces actually were!!!


I put my hand up near the quilt, we weren't actually allowed to touch them, so my hand looks slightly bigger than it should be compared to the pieces, but it's pretty accurate! :)


The highlight of my day was this lady, Rebecca Barker, paints pictures of nature scenes, but that also tie in to a quilt block! For example, Ocean Waves has a scene of a shoreline, but faintly in the sand you can see the Ocean Waves quilt block pattern!!! I ended up buying the Alaska, Lilies, and Delectable Mt's. along with a few of her cards!

Check out her website!!!
http://www.barkerquiltscapes.com/

Fruits of my boredom

When I'm bored I tend to rifle through my patterns, pet my fabric and tinker with my notions. Usually I take everything out, look at it, think "wow this stuff is neat! I can't wait to use it!" And then I put it all away. Well, every once in a while I end up making something completely random. Like a purse or a belt! :)

I used Moda Blush for the purse.....

And I added another small pocket (on left) for my cell phone. I hate it when my cell phone rolls around unsupervised in my purse. And then I'm going to put a button hole on the top side of the big pocket to clip my badge for work or my keys on. That way they're not rolling around either!

I had to have some of this fabric! It's from the Windham Shelburne Circus line. I thought it'd be cool to have a ton of people around my waist! And I've been meaning to make a belt forever....so this was a good 10 minute project that I embarked on last night just before I went to sleep!

I also bought some kiwi fabric to make a belt out of. It's really neat! Great to wear with a pair of jeans! A nice pop of color!

So tell me, what do you want around your waist???




Not bad for the fruits of my boredom eh? :)

Two of two...DONE!

Ah ha! The second wedding quilt for the summer is finished! I thought about doing a "scrappy" binding, but I'm really glad I went with the red. I have a triangle pantograph quilted on the front in gray thread, and the back is in red thread. It's even ahead of schedule! Their wedding is September 17th.


I picked this kind of eye confusing backing because they have cats. A black one and a red and orange one. Hopefully the colors and patterns will hide the cat hair! :)

One down, one more to go!

Well, I did it. One wedding quilt down and one more to go! I finished Storybook Farm (the name of the collection of blocks) late Thursday night before I had to leave Friday morning for the wedding rehearsal! My fiance Scott is holding up the finished product! I forgot to take pictures of the back though. I used some wedding word fabric for the sleeves! Everyone at the rehearsal dinner loved it! Especially the quilting ladies in the crowd! :)




This block of the horse and the rooster is my favorite!




On this block I put a clothesline on there with some clothes and a teeny tiny quilt! :) It's even 3D!

Pretty cute, eh?

What are your thoughts? It was my first McKenna Ryan and I had it quilted at the quilt shop rather than doing it myself around each piece.