Dragonfly Festival

I made this quilt top last year but just got around to quilting it recently. The pattern is from the book "Turning Twenty Again". All the fabrics in this quilt is very Asian looking and has dragonflys throughout. I don't think this picture does it justice . It's really a very pretty quilt!

Here's a closeup of some of the fabric.

Originally, I had wanted to quilt dragonflys throughout but it was too hard and I kept dragging my feet in finishing it. I picked all the old designs out and decided to just make whimsical loops. Here's a close up of one little block.
The back is just lotus plants on pink fabric--sooooo cute!

Here's a close up of the back. This may be going to my mom for her birthday. We'll see. I really like this one too.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

My little friend Nathan turns 2 today! Nathan is my friend Ruth's little boy and he is just too cute for words. He's very animated and loves to talk. Unfortunately, I don't usually know what he's saying. However, he's gotten the word "Auntie" down to a science and makes my heart melt when he shouts it. Yes, he doesn't just say "Auntie", he SHOUTS it. You know, just in case I can't hear him. I love that when he wants to give you a fist bump, he puts his little fist in front of you and yells "knuck"!
For his birthday, I made him a sailboat quilt. The pattern came from the book "Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts". It was really easy to put together. I think the entire quilt (not including the binding) took me about 7 hours. For the quilting, I free motioned clouds in the sky and waves for the sea (click on the picture for a close up). I added some pictures from this past year and stippled around them.

The flag was a tribute to my friend Rich who loves all things pirate.

Happy Birthday little Nay Nay! Smooches from your Auntie Chen!

OCD Anyone?

I am a creature of habit. I have a favorite dish at every restaurant I go to regularly and rarely do I try a different item. When I walk my dogs, I take the same path every day. I wear the same outfits over and over again. I pretty much follow the same routine daily. Apparently, when I like a quilt pattern, I make the same quilt over and over again. I can't help it. This pattern is so friggin easy and I can usually get a quilt top done in a few hours. Instant satisfaction! I'm going to call this one "Fruit Loops". It just reminds me of a bowl of Fruit Loops.

Here's a close up of a block. I used the Brooke sheets from the Pottery Barn Kids collection for the middle. So. Stinkin. Cute. Although I hate stippling, I love the wrinkly effects it produces.

For the back, I just pieced fabrics from the same colorway until I got the size I needed. I think the back looks like a pack of Fruit Stripe gum. Maybe I'll just call this quilt "Yummy"!

I heart pink and green

I love this quilt. The pattern is the Flea Market Fancy quilt from crazymomquilts. The quilt top is sooo easy to put together. I think it took me around 5 hours and that included the cutting. I quilted on the diagonal again and although I'm getting better, some of my lines are still crooked.For the back, I just pieced leftover green and pink fabrics. There's something about a pieced back that I just love.

This one's a keeper. I REALLY DON'T need another quilt but I really heart this one!

Smores Snowman quilt

This is actually the first quilt of 2009. I wanted to make a theme quilt for every month and for January, I wanted a snowman one. I hated every snowman fabric I found and I thought I'd have to change the theme for January until I stumbled on this line. Snowman fabric with PINK, LIME GREEN, and LAVENDER backgrounds. SOOO friggin cute! This quilt was really easy to put together. The middle square is 6" and the frames 3.5". I quilted on the diagonal and let's just say, I need to practice.
For the back, I just pieced strips of the snowman fabric with a mottled turqouise.

For the binding, I used a neutral fabric with zig zags. I had to bias cut the binding and to say I didn't enjoy this would be an understatement (Actually my friend Maribeth did most of the work ! I just did the swearing!). Matching the zig zag was a HUGE pain! Regardless, I love this quilt. It's such a happy, colorful quilt!

Mali's birthday quilt

I'm not good at naming quilts. I like to keep it nice and simple so this one's called "Mali's birthday quilt" . Heh. Mali is one of a small group of my friends that just gets me. She and I have the same sense of humor (very similiar to that of a 13 year old boy) and she's always 100% behind me in every crazy scheme that I've got planned. One of the things I love most about Mali is that she gives 100% to everything she does, whether it be work, being a great mom , crafting or being my sidekick to my newest adventure. It was a given that I'd make her a quilt for her birthday. When I asked what color she wanted her birthday quilt to be, she said pink and I knew we'd be friends forever. This quilt was really easy to put together. I based it on Crazymomquilts Flea Market Fancy quilt. The middle square is 5" and the frames around it 3.5". The border is 2 inches. I had intended to add another 5 inch border around it but I didn't like the fabric I chose. I tried a different one and didn't like that either. After seam ripping the border TWICE because I didn't like the fabric choices, I decided to leave it alone.
For the back, I just framed a really pretty piece of pink and brown print with a brown border and cute dots that I'd originally planned for the front. Umm, I did the math wrong and that's way the bottom strip is so thin. I quilted lines on the diagonal and as you can see, it's a little uneven. It's was my second time doing this technique and let's just say, I need more practice. The great thing about Mali is that she doesn't care. She never sees my mistakes ( at least she doesn't tell me). She's just happy that I made her a quilt. And i'm just happy that she likes it!