It's a Blog Hop Party!

This was so much fun the last time I did it, I have been looking to do a Blog Hop again.  So this time, the universal quilter organizer, Michele asked if I wanted to play at her party, I jumped  {waited until the last day to get} on board. So, without further ado...

Since I gave away a bottle of my Magic Starch last time, I will be giving away a bottle of her sister Super Quilt Soap.  I also make this soap and I use it on all my fabric as well as my quilts.  It is available for purchase to my customers and hopefully will soon be up for grabs at a local quilt shop.  I use up-cycled glass bottles and it has a super yummy smell.

Here is a picture of my 'Vanna ' posing with the bottle and a quilt that now smells so very nice. ;)

Just leave a post for me with your favorite soap scent to be entered in the drawing (the soap only has one scent - I call it Lavender Rain). Also, like us on Facebook for a second chance to win. Included with your fancy schmancy bottle of homemade soap I will also include a $25 gift certificate toward longarm quilting service by yours truly.  It can be used on any quilt size or pattern and will be deducted before any other promotions (I also give first quilt and referral discounts).  Batting, thread and shipping are not included in the discount and there is a $50 minimum charge on all quilting orders. I will ship internationally if you win.

My very own 'Vanna' will be drawing the lucky name on Sunday, December 16th at (or around) 4:00 p.m. est. I can't wait to see what everyone has in the works...happy hopping!

Rick and Trina's Anniversary Quilt

This is my cousin Rick and his GORGEOUS wife Katrina.  They are 2 of my most favoritest people in the whole wide world!

They have been locked in a blissful marriage for going on 18 years.

This is what they looked like on the day they committed to keep each other for good.

The look like Ken and Barbie don't they?  As beautiful as they are, it kind of makes you want to dress them up and build them a dream house and buy then an ugly pink car doesn't it?  The great part is, they still look at each other like this all the time...it makes me very happy!

Here are a few examples of the things that this experiment is joy has produced:

They make good looking new people too don't they?

Anyway, I decided that since it had been a while since I had done something to celebrate them and their marriage  it was time to make them a quilt, I mean they earned it didn't they?  Let me preface this with saying, I wouldn't make a quilt like this for just anyone...this one had a lot of work in it!  Not so much the piecing but the quilting is some of my favorite work yet.

When Lee over at freshly pieced started this great quilt along I knew it was for me.  Once I started picking out the fabrics for it, I knew it would be the one for them.  See, Trina is one of those people that literally brings color into a room. Not in the 'she dresses like a clown' kind of way, but in the 'here comes the sun' kind of way.  Rick is great too but more in a wonder-nerd kind of way, and everyone knows how I love a good nerd!  So the combinations of bright happy colors mixed with the 'Supernova' pattern was perfect!

So, here goes, pictures of the finished quilt:

I told you it was colorful.

And that great, rainbow colored freaky fabric is the borders, backing and binding! I just love the stuff but if you look at it too long, I think it might induce seizures.  I had picked that little jewel up off the clearance table at ACC a few years back with NO idea where it was going to live but I just knew I had to have it!  I am so happy that this is the forever home it found.  I also pray that these two wonderful people have many years of happy dreams while lying under it!

Happy Anniversary! I love you both very much!

Aubrey's First Quilt

I know I haven't been around much lately, just too much life and not enough time.  I plan to make a bunch of posts this week so hang on to your socks....

This is my girl, I call her 'Mo'.

By 'my girl' I mean she is my clone for the good and the bad. {As much as I try to improve on my good, I am not delusional to think that the bad doesn't balance that scale.} I am fortunate enough that the quilting bug bit her when she was 9.  She may not be as eager of a quilter as I am but she will be.  It took her 2 years to finish her first quilt, but as with most things, she did it all the way.  She didn't take the easy route and pick out a panel to dress up. No, she didn't even find a pattern in the giant stack of magazines and ideas I have been clipping for years.  She sat down with a piece of paper and drew a block.  Then I gave her a piece of graph paper and said 'ok, now put it on here so you can make sure it works'.  She whipped that out with no problem too.  She doesn't have it in her to say "I can't do that". 

Here is a picture of the compete block that she designed:

This whole making a quilt thing started when she was rummaging through some scraps one day looking for some other project for school. She found a bunch of left over 3 inch squares I had cut to make this quilt.  Red is my signature color so I always have lots of that laying around and what goes better with red than black and white right?  It didn't take long for her to collect enough fabric to make a lap quilt.  True to form, she didn't want much help, she wanted to figure it out on her own.  This particular personality trait, I find to be especially endearing.  ;)  Once she figured that part out, it became a long and drawn out process of distraction.  This personality trait...not my favorite.  However, like I said, she is my clone so I can't complain too much...I have quilts that are 5 years in the making.  Anyway, those blocks turned into this:

Again, this is the stage it sat in for quite a while.  While on a shopping trip to one of my favorite quilt stores (which sadly turned out to be my last trip there because it closed down) I found the perfect border and backing fabrics.  When I brought them home and showed them to her, she was once again excited about finishing the quilt.  We put the borders on that weekend.  It is amazing to see how much her sewing skills have developed, I am sure it is simply an age thing and that whole 'doing it right the first time' thing is starting to kick in (again, good trait).  I am proud to say that even though the seams in the center are not perfect, the borders are, look how flat they lay! 

Didn't I tell you the fabric for the borders was perfect? ;)  The same black and white hearts that is in the outer border is on the back and the black polka dot is the binding.

She even tried her hand at the quilting.  I helped her lay out her pattern and load the quilt on the rack but she did the quilting.  She also did all the binding herself.  I made the hanging sleeve but she attached it along with the label.  Her final motivation to finish was to put it in our quilt show, which she did.  All the junior quilters that put a quilt in the show get a ribbon so she was proud of that.  After the show was over, she entered it in the county fair where she won a 2nd place ribbon in her category...she is even more proud of  that one.

So that's my girl, ain't she somethin'?  

Jaydin's Kindle Cover

We have this family tradition where for one day of the year, the kids each get to choose what they want to do for the day.  We put all the months, except for the really cold ones (December-February) and August since that is when our anniversary is, into a hat.  They each pulled a month out of the hat, whichever month they picked was their month. On the first Saturday of that month is their day.  June is Jaydin's day. He opted to have funnel cakes for breakfast then go Geocashing with the family. Then it was lunch at Jerusalem Garden and back home to drop off the smaller kids and Dad.  After that, I took him and Damian along with another friend to the skate park where I watched them try not to break their necks.  Once they were good and messy from that, we came home and watched a movie.  Needless to say, Mom was tired! 

As part of their 'special day' we, the parents, surprise them with a gift.  Jaydin is a huge book hound, he also has thing about documenting everything so there are notes all over the place. He really wanted some sort of e-reader.  After reading reviews on which one would be the best for someone his age, I got him a Kindle.  He was delighted to say the least.  Since he is after all a 12 year old boy, I didn't want him using it much before it had some sort of protection on it.  Dad took him to my favorite fabric store to pick out two fat quarters.  He brought home a red Lorax fabric with a complimenting blue and white fabric.  I found a tutorial to make a cover.  I think it came out pretty cute...

Don & Liz's Quilt

This was a fun one to make. About a year ago I found the pattern in one magazine or another (don't really remember which one).

Aren't they cute?

We had spent a fun weekend at their house last summer after not seeing them for many years. It was great to remember how much I love them both. Even though they are friends they really are family {in a rather twisted way}.  I have a list of people in my life that 'need quilts' and once we had found out that we would be visiting their house, I added them to my list. So even before I got to see them, I started pulling out fabrics for this quilt.  I thought Liz would like something sort of traditional but still bright and funky...you know like me! ;)  Since I am a batik hound I didn't have to go far...I have to say this was a pretty fun to put together.

I have been trying to work in pieced backing lately.  Since I had bits of the triangle pieces leftover from the front, I found a somewhat strange way to put them together for a strip on the back. I was hoping there would be more of the green showing once it was quilted but it didn't work out that way...oh well. I think it still worked out well.

I know, I know, that is A LOT of colors.

Jazz Approved

It's Leap Day!

 

This is going to be short and sweet, I know you just want to get to entering for the giveaway anyway so here goes:

 

I make this starch, it is wonderful stuff! I can't claim to be the mastermind behind it because someone else gave the recipe to me. I have just embraced it with both hands and think it is sent straight from the fabric deities themselves!  So, here is a 9 oz bottle of concentrated starch.  You will need to add distilled water to it and put it in your favorite spray bottle.  I have been making it for a while and I'm pretty sure I will never use anything else.

 

 

 

In addition to the starch, I will also include a $25 gift certificate for quilting. Use it for any quilting design or size you want. Batting and thread and shipping is not included in the discount.  If you win, we can work out the details then.

 

So, leave a comment and I will pick a winner on Thursday monring.  Have fun hopping!

Leap Day Giveaway

So I am trying something new.  My quilting buddy Elizabeth is organizing a Blog Hop. Look that this supper cute graphic to go with it:

The deal is, if you join the blog hop, you have to make a post on Leap Year's Day with a giveaway. It doesn't have to be anything wonderful, just something that shows you played along. I plan on giving away a bottle of my homemade magic start and a gift certificate for quilting services.

Here is a link to the Such a Sew and Sew's Blog with the rules for the game and all the fancy buttons and what not.

Hope to see you then.

Mrs. Jackson's Wallhanging

I am not sure what happened with this post. I thought I posted it with all the other teacher gift posts from last school year, but maybe I didn’t….


This is Jordan’s Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Jackson. I have to say she has been one of my favorites! I am so glad that Squish got to have his first school experiences with her. She is a true gem and good hearted person. I mean really, you have to be a certain kind of person to even WANT to be in a room of screaming 5 years olds all day, every day right? Well, she not only does it but she is good at it and gets them to really learn great things. My son will forever be a better person for having her as a chapter of his life, I am sure of it.

He couldn't wait to give it to her.

Quilting Details

As much as possible, I try to include the kids in whatever gifts are made for the teachers as I want the gift to be from them as much as it is a ‘thank you’ gift from me. On a shopping trip one day I had found this Mayfly Mischief fabric by Clothworks. I thought ‘Oh that is soooooo cute! I NEED to make something with that”. But since I try to not buy fabric that doesn’t have a purpose (batiks and stripes not withstanding) I resisted buying it. This was before I had met Mrs. Jackson. She is one of those ‘Dr Seuss’ type of people. Everything has a song or funny poem attached to it and I can just see her owning a Cat in the Hat style hat. That is what this fabric panel reminded me of. So I took Squish to the store with me one day and asked him if he thought she would like it. He said ‘she would LOVE it, can we make her something to put on the wall?’ Good enough for me…I bought the panel as well as enough coordinating fabrics to make something…all thought I didn’t know what yet.

Squish and Mrs. Jackson on graduation day.

What possessed me to just start making half square triangles I am not sure. I HATE making them! I usually love the end results that comes from things made with them but the actual, cutting and sewing and pressing and then trimming that is required makes me cranky. But alas, that is what I did…just whipped up a bunch of them. That morphed into pinwheels, which is one of those things I just love that is sadly made up entirely of half square triangles. So that was that, now I had this big stack of pinwheels…what next? Start with the panel, add some borders, slap on the pinwheels, then some more borders and viola…a wall hanging. Then I realized that I had 2 panels and just about enough blocks to make a second one so guess what? This one has an exact twin. I saved the second one to put in our local quilt show and it ended up in our guild’s calendar.

Jordan with Mrs. Taylor, the classroom assistant teacher.

The quilting was fun too. I am sure there is more quilting than necessary on it but who cares, it is hanging on a wall right? The thread is a beautiful shimmer variegated thread that I had been looking for a home for as well. With lots of loops and more pinwheels and some accenting on the center panel. Over all I am pretty pleased with this one, I hope it finds a good home with Mrs. Jackson.

Jordan and Rodrigo

Matthew, Joradan and DJ

Kinley and Jordan (his first crush)