Friday, November 25, 2011

Two more off the list

 Felt Nativity set going to my sister-in-law's kids. So excited about this! I've decided that every year my Christmas gift for the family will be to add to that set. AND I'll make a set for every brother/sister as they grow their families. So far, between myself and my husband, we've only got three married couples, and only two of us have kids. I definitely have time before I have to start thinking about assembling a bunch of these, but I figured I could start out with the Holy Family and then add a couple of new characters every year. This year I just need to make one more set for my kids and that's it for now. I can stow away my pattern until another Christmas. :)
Doll quilt for my daughter. She's getting a nice doll this year for Christmas, so I decided to make her a doll quilt to go with her dolly. It measures about 17" x 20" and I used Me & My Sister's "Birdie". It is an older line (almost two years) but I absolutely ADORE it. My daughter's baby quilt is made from the same line, her big-girl quilt uses this line, her tooth fairy pillow is going to use "Birdie".... She's a "Birdie" baby! Seemed only appropriate to use my left-over charms from her big-girl quilt (which is currently sitting in small stacks in my project drawer) to whip up the doll blanket to match. I'll be so sad when I can't find ANY of this fabric any more! I have a yard of the yellow flowers print that I'm hoarding, but will probably all be used up in her big-girl quilt.

This was my first attempt at a scalloped edge..... I will definitely be practicing it a LOT more before doing the scalloped edge on my daughter's big-girl quilt. I had to sort of create my own template for the scallops, but I won't be doing that again. Next time, I'm buying one. That way I know I'll get it right. A doll quilt I can sort of excuse the mistakes. For the real deal? Not so much....

So! Two down, a bunch more to go....

Thursday, November 24, 2011

FINISHED!

Okay, so K's Christmas quilt is done. Don't have any pictures because I had to send it with my mom to TX tonight. She and my dad came into town for Thanksgiving and leave early tomorrow morning and, since they can check things for free, I just loaded up a bunch our Christmas presents for family up into their box and sent it with them. Beat the mail system, and I didn't have to pay for shipping. Win! Anyway, so she's washing it at her house (no time to wash it before we had to pack it up) and will take picture to send to me. I'll post it as soon as I get it.

So now onto a few other projects I really need to get done. Like, yesterday. Christmas sure is a busy time of year! :D

Saturday, November 12, 2011

On the machine

 All done! :)
Next....
Should be finished tomorrow.... hopefully.
I have one more week and I've got to have a Nativity set, a baby quilt, two tooth fairy pillows, and the quilt on the machine finished. Can I do it? I have no idea, but I'll try.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Sneak peak....

What am I working on right now? Well, several things really (doll quilt, K's quilt, pillows....). But my ornaments for the swap have consumed all of my crafting time today:


Again Pinterest is where I found the inspiration for this ornament. The original is here: flickr. Mine will not include the donkey and star, and obviously  I'm finishing mine on the machine because hand stitching is not something I need/want to get into right now. But either way I think they will be cute! :)

Friday, November 4, 2011

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2011

I've participated in Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival the last couple of years and I have always enjoyed reading the stories behind so many of the beautiful quilts. And while my quilt isn't nearly as big and grand as some of the other amazing quilts (seriously, you should check them ALL out), after thinking about it for about two seconds I decided I was going to share about this quilt...

My little temple quilt measures 27.5" square. Each square of embroidery measures 3.75" square. I made it to enter into the LDS Art Competition. The theme this year was "Make known His glorious works", and I made this one as my testimony of what Jesus Christ means in my life as my Savior and Redeemer. He's the Good Shepherd, Fountain of Living Water, Tree of Life, and Light of the World.

With every stitch in this quilt I thought of all of the blessings I've been given in my life and how great and tender the mercies of God! I poured so much of my thanks and heart into this quilt I am kind of afraid of it actually ending up in the exhibit; I don't want it to come off of the wall of my bedroom! While working on it I couldn't get it out of my head, put all my other projects on hold, and I'd wake up in the morning having thought of more ways to make it as beautiful as possible. Each step felt guided, and when I'd get stuck or stumped on a problem or how to execute a complicated idea in my mind, I inevitably found an inspiring thought in the most mundane and beautiful things. I'm so happy it turned out as nicely as it did. Of course I see all of the imperfections, but I hope it is an acceptable sacrifice.

I actually bought enough fabric to make two more of these quilts. It was an accident of course, I was originally going to make the quilt much bigger! But after assembling a lot of it I just felt like the quilt would be better if I kept it small and simple... So I ended up with a lot left over and I just mightmake the extra two so I can give one to my mom (not quite sure who the second one would go to but I could probably figure it out). And fortunately I wrote down every stitch and thread that I used in making the embroidered squares, and I copied my embroidery sketches so I could turn them into PDF documents. I am so glad, too, because those patterns were trashed throughout the process of making the quilt! So now I've got a way to recreate the whole quilt and hopefully not make the same mistakes. I'll make another more beautiful but keep my imperfect one.... it suites me. :)


Thursday, November 3, 2011

A dangerous pastime

My favorite shop EVER? Fat Quarter Shop. I could spend all day just looking at the pretty fabric! They just wrapped up a weekend at Quilt Market and introduced me to my newest love: California Girl!


I borrowed the picture from Fig Tree Quilts' blog introducing her new line. I haven't been this blown away by a line of fabric in a long time! I cannot wait for its release next March, and I've already decided on what I'm going to do with it - MY quilt! I haven't made a quilt for myself yet! Every quilt I've made has been made for someone else. My quilt was a $20 steal at Ross. Somehow that seems sad to me, that a quilter has a store-bought quilt on her bed. Well, that's going to change as soon as I've got my little bundle of California Girl! Yea!

Okay, now that I've gushed it is time to get back to reality. I've got a ton of projects to get to this month, so I'd better get to work!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Adding to the project list...


I do this holiday ornament swap every year and I'm so excited that it is continuing after Freshly Blended announced she needed a break for a while. The torch has been passed, and I'm signed up. I was considering not doing it this year, but it is such a wonderful start to my holiday season! It is a lot of fun to make these fun ornaments for other people, and the kids look forward to getting little packages in the mail throughout the month. Christmas every day! ;) So I'm signed up. And I'm excited to get started.