Boxed in is quilted!

Yippee! I really like the quilting on this. I just used my walking foot and quilted 1/4" to the side of each seam. What's exciting is that my straight quilting skills have improved. It's almost all straight this time :0)!!

The middle piece for the back was a test piece I initially used when I was trying to figure out the sizes for the blocks and it was a tad too big. I used to as a starting off point and added more Kona white and AB goodness until I got this:

I originally planned to quilt along in the other direction too but had second thoughts when I realized it would look too much like graph paper in the back .

Ya'll wanna see my view when I'm attaching the binding to the back? The other one's under the quilt. You can see a little bit of his ear if you look hard enough. They love to snuggle in the quilt and snooze while I sew on the binding. Speaking of bindings, love, love, love polka dots for bindings!

This little beauty finished at 56"x58".

Dancy's doll quilt

My generous bloggy friend Stephanie sends me random "just because" packages because she's all kinds of awesome. When she heard I was making a Heather Ross sampler quilt, she sent me HR FQs that she found at Joannes to add to my collection. I've not met Stephanie in real life, yet her daughter, Dancy, knows my name. She has claimed the purse I made Stephanie as her own and carries her" babies" in it. I'm a sucker for cute little ones so I decided to make a doll quilt for Dancy and her babies. This was a kit that was in one of my recent packages. It was really easy to put together and fast too. It calls for monofilament thread for the quilting which I did not use. I matched thread color with the fabric instead and it worked great for the top of the quilt but was a hot mess on the back. It's a good thing toddlers don't have high standards for quilting. The doll quilt measures 17.25"x19.25".


Speaking of generous bloggy friends, Sarah agreed to send me some scraps of her Heather Ross collection from her quilt from AQB1. Apparently, Sarah and I have different definitions of "scraps".

Most of the pieces were FQ sized and up. She also sent me HR FQs that she found at Joannes too. I'm a lucky, lucky girl! Thank you so much Sarah!

Fatty's birthday quilt

I have always referred to my friend Brett as the brother I never wanted. From the minute we became friends, he has taken on the role of my big brother. It didn't matter that I neither wanted or needed a big brother. I never even thought we'd be friends. He wasn't someone I wanted to spend a lot of time with. He can be a controlling, over-bearing, self indulgent cad at times. On the other hand, he can also be very caring and generous with his time and money. I met Brett years ago when I was a waitress and he was my manager. My uniform was a HORRIBLE two piece outfit that I despised. The top was basically a bathing suit top with gold lame straps and the bottom was a cheerleading type skirt. We could wear a jacket over the top until 9:00p.m. Needless to say, I tried to keep my jacket on for as long as possible. That is until Brett would find me and scream, "skin to wind, girl, skin to wind". Obnoxious! My friendship with Brett has definitely had its ups and downs but I know without a doubt that I can always count on him.




Brett has a birthday coming up. I have wanted to make him a quilt and when I saw this fabric, I knew I had to include it. Brett is an avid surfer. He has traveled to many countries searching for the perfect waves. Last summer he went to Nicaragua and caught something other than great waves. He caught a virus that almost killed him. This virus was so strong and deadly, it turned a 45 year old strong and healthy man to a weak man that could barely walk without a walker in a matter of days. He spent two weeks at Johns Hopkins Hospital clinging on to his life. He has since recovered and is almost back to normal and I thank God every day for that. He drives me crazy because he knows exactly which one of my buttons to push and takes great delight in pushing EVERY one of them. However, I can't imagine my life without his obnoxious self.

The only other things Brett loves more than surfing is his four beautiful kids. While I'm proud of Brett's many successes in life, the one thing I'm most proud of is what an amazing papa he has become to his kids. He is a hands on dad and very loving, caring and encouraging around his kids. It's a side of him that I had never witness until he had kids.

I kept the design of the quilt very basic. The colors were loud and vibrant in the surfing fabric. I just pulled from that and added basic blocks. While Brett's staring at his babies on this side of the quilt...

others will see this....

My math skills have been lacking lately but if you're born in 1963, that means you turn 50 this year right? Golly gee, I hope so. I'd hate to be wrong. If he wants to take on the role as obnoxious big brother, I can most certainly play the part of a bratty, little sister. Heh! The cake fabric is from another old uniform . It's made of 100% rayon and impossible to work with. I just added interfacing to stabilize it and voila, a three tiered cake was made. Fatty is what he used to call all the waitresses and later, much to his chagrin, it became his nickname.


For the quilt label, I used a picture from when we first met. I don't know why the label looks so crooked in this picture.

I know the repercussions for this will be high. He owns 3 businesses with marquees and I may find people wishing me a happy 50th in September.

She's HUUUUUUUGE!!!

Conversation with my niece a few days ago:

Niece: I think I'm getting a rash on my thighs
Me: Oh really, from what?
Niece: From them rubbing together when I walk. Can't you see? I'm HUGE!



Here's a picture of my "huge" niece:
I think what set off this "huge" talk is she recently went shopping for new shorts and she had to buy a size 1 instead of the usual size 00. Oh noes! She wears a 1! Being this huge didn't stop her from eating a huge chicken sandwich from Wendy's, a cup of chili and two fudgsicles last night after work. At 1:30 a.m.! In this picture, she's holding up a panel from the newest quilt I just finished last night. I'll post that as soon as I get pictures taken. In the meantime, I've got to hit the grocery store. We're out of fudgsicles...

She quilts! Finally!

My Munki Munki Kitties quilt is DONE!! An improv pieced back.

Click on the picture for a closer look at the quilt. I tried a new to me quilting, little curly loops.

Finished quilt is 42"x64". I had to trim the quilt top a little because I made the backing a teeny bit smaller than the top. Oops! One down, mumbly mumbly 14 to go.

My mailman hates me...

or at least that's what my niece tells me. She said he had some difficulty getting all my packages in the mailbox today and he was looking none too pleased. He may hate me but I love him! He brought me some amazing stuff today.





Victoria and I arranged a mini quilt swap between ourselves and this is what she sent me. So beautiful and so Victoria! The detailed work on her quilting is AMAZING!!!

Here's a close up of the quilting details. You need to click on the picture to get a closer look. It'll be worth your time. Thank you Victoria. I LOVE it!

Sam mentioned in her blog a while back that she loved owls. I sent her some of my PBKids owl fabric and a FQ of owls that I found at my LQS. I asked her to make me a block with a piece of the PBKids owls whenever she got the chance. Here's that beautiful block:

She also sent me a new quilt book, a Valorie Wells FQ and holy moley, an amazing
cute little pillow. So generous!

Here's a close up of the mini pillow. The embroidery on this is so awesome. Her french knots are so good. The last time I tried french knots, I wanted to stab myself in the eyeballs with my needle. It was so frustrating for me. I can't even imagine the time it must have taken to make this. Thank you so much Sam!

And speaking of detailed hand work, look what Anne from my Snip, Sew, Send quilting bee sent me. She used a technique called shadow embroidery for the middle block. She explains it in detail here. Again, Ah frickin mazing!

Here's a close up of the middle block. I wish I could get a good picture showing the colors peeping through.

Here's what the back of the block looks like.

She also made me a very cute card and sent me a re-usable tote from U.S. Space and Rocket Center that's going to be used tonight when I go to the grocery store. Thank you Anne. I love it all!

Tina ( also from Snip, Sew, Send) not only added her own stash to my very cute block, she also sent her stash of Chocolate Lollipop. Thank you Tina!

Lisa, who cracks me up because she refers to me as "Miss Mushyhed" sent this cute block. There are some teeny, tiny strips in there!! I love it! Thank you, Lisa!

I wish every mail day was like today!

I had a very busy weekend and actually got some quilting done. Yes, you read that right. I finished a project. Said quilt is in the dryer as we speak so I'll post pictures tomorrow. And to top that, I started yet another quilt yesterday. Yes, Dawn, you read that correctly. Another quilt. Not only did I get the quilt top done, I made the backing and it's all pinned and ready to be quilted. I'm so deliriously happy ( and I do mean delirious because I think I slept all of 6 hours the WHOLE weekend!).

Awww...

She calls them Fatheads and tells me they're annoying, but look what I found yesterday...

Out of control...

This stack of quilt tops is waiting for backing, quilting and binding. And yet I keep starting new projects. I'm pretty sure there are others around here but not only am I too lazy to quilt, I'm also too lazy to look for missing quilt tops. I've got a new quilt I'm planning with all the great Heather Ross fabrics that I've received through my swaps. I'm trying to be good and not start working on it but then I have this one taunting me with comments like, "...it's a shame to let Heather sit on a shelf...". And this one sending me HR scraps and this one sending me HR FQs. Enablers, ya'll, I'm surrounded by them:0). I did start a new quilt top last night. It's a mini one so that doesn't count or does it?




Today was another good mail day. I received my block from Kris :

This block is much prettier in person. The picture doesn't do it justice. The hand sewing on this is flawless! She's got a great tutorial on how to do the circles here.

And thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who commented about my circle quilt . I woke up to an in box filled with encouragement and it totally made my day. I guess we are all our own worst critics. I get disappointed when what's in my head doesn't translate exactly the way I want it to on fabric. I took another look at the quilt top today and I think I'm going to leave it alone. I'm kinda digging it now...

Circle quilt done...again

At least I think it's done. Remember this? Here it is re-done. I'm still not crazy about it. I may change the outer border to the Bahama blue.

A close up...

This quilt top finished at 58"x72".

A really great day in the end

I was having a really blah day until the mailman came today. I received my placemat from Autumn and I LOVE it! She totally gets me. This beach girl loves her some mermaids and sea life and Autumn delivered. Here's the front of the placemat: Here's the back... At least I think it's the back. Both sides are beautiful works of art. I know the front lawn is probably a weird place to photograph a placemat but I couldn't get a good picture inside. Besides, I have zero intentions of using it as a placemat. It's too pretty. I'm going to hang it up in my office. I also have have a side swap with Victoria **for a mini quilt that I'll be adding to my collection. Hopefully, one day I'll have a whole wall full.

Autumn also sent me some cute Hawaiian fabrics and seashells from California and Hawaii. Only a beach girl would send another beach girl seashells to add to her collection :0).

I also received my swap from Lisa. She has a to die for collection of Heather Ross and Munki Munki fabrics. She sent me a yard of the HR Volkswagon buses in blue and a bunch of charm squares of HR, Munki Munki and Japanese prints. I LOVE the pink gnomes. Eeeek! She also sent Sublime Stitching some embroidery patterns filled with gnomes and fairies.

Zonnah's block arrived and omigosh, it's even prettier in person!!

Some of Michelle's good luck rubbed off on me and I won a charm square pack of May Pole by April Cornell from Dawn. So pretty!

Edith's fabric arrived for her month in PTQB. She wants circles and I love making circles so this block will be fun! I love her selection of fabrics.

Dana and I also swapped and her package arrived last Friday. Look at all that cuteness from the Minny Muu collection by Lecien. LOVE!

This was a great ending to an otherwise very blah day. I have been dragging all day. I may need to detox from this past weeks' festivities. I ate too much and drank too much. Lest you all think that I'm a raging partier, I am what some people call a "lightweight" and others may call a "cheap date". It depends on who's doing the name calling. I average about 2 drinks a month and just this past week I've had quite a few months worth. To top it off, while I enjoyed crabcakes and tuna steaks at a cookout last night, the mosquitoes had an all you can eat Asian buffet. I am covered in mosquito bites. So I'm off to go bathe in Calamine lotion and go stare at my loot. I hope you all had a great weekend.

**** Victoria is looking for people to make blocks for a charity quilt. If you would like to help, go here.

Placemat swap

I joined the placemat swap on Flickr and my partner is Autumn. She has just received her package in the mail so I can post her placemat. Autumn said she loves bright, primary colors and wanted something with circles or curved piecing. When she said bright colors, I automatically thought of Kaffe Fassett. I love his fabric lines and own quite a few of his books. His quilts are so inspirational! Anyways, here's Autumn's placemat: I had a hard time working on such a small scale. I had other ideas to add to it but the it made it larger than a placemat so I kept it simple. I also made her a little potholder...

For a look at more of her loot, go here. Go here to see all the other great placemats.

There will be no sewing for me this weekend. I have a weekend filled with outdoor concerts, goodbyes, beaches, cookouts, fireworks and probably too many margaritas :0).

Have a great weekend my wonderful bloggy friends!

1+1+1+1= 1 Giddy Girl!

Two days into July and I already have 4 AMAZING blocks from my pals in the Snip.Sew.Send quilting bee.

From Nichole: From Heather:

From Zonnah:

From Anne:

This girl is celebrating Christmas in July!

Pure awesomeness

This character came up to me and nonchalantly said, " I need you to make me a red cape with a S on it". There were no...
"Can you please make...?" or
"Do you think maybe you could...?"

While his horrified mother reprimanded him, I giggled because, when it's not your kid, it's funny. Besides, who could keep a straight face looking at his ensemble for that day. Yes, he's wearing his underwear OVER his pj's and did you see the belt and sunglasses? The boy loves to accessorize. I made that cape he's wearing months ago and he wears it everywhere. He recently wore it on a flight to Seattle and the pilots were so amused by him, they let him peek into the cockpit. You know, it's not everyday a superhero is on your flight.

Well the little booger is moving to Seattle and I had to make sure he didn't leave without a new cape. I brought it over to him last night and the look on his face when he saw it was pure awesomeness! It took me less than two hours to make this cape. I have given quilts that have taken me weeks to make and while the recipients are always happy to receive my gift, they don't have the look this kid had. His face radiated pure joy! He looked at me like I had just hung the moon and who doesn't love that kind of adoration? Let's just say we were both on Cloud 9.

Here's a picture of him pointing at the S. He told me he needed a red cape with a red S on an upside down yellow triangle. I aim to please.


Here he is modeling his cape.

I made it reversible in case he felt like being his alter ego Batman. Do you want to know what he said? Can you make me a BLUE Batman cape? Little booger!

Tutorial for the cape is here.