Dancing In The Garden

Yesterday morning I finished my first full size quilt.  I have only done mini's for my daughter's dolls.  This one is for my daughter Alexa. I am calling it, "Dancing in the Garden".  It's a simple design that I did long before I took any classes or read anything.  I knew nothing about anything.  If you saw it in person you would giggle at my mistakes.  One of the wording squares is sewn upside down, the squares are sometimes misaligned, half of it is machine sewn and the other half is hand sewn; beginner type stitches, so many things wrong.  But you know what it is right for my daughter.  By having her Mama's very first quilt,she will know that no one begins with excellent work.  It takes time and practice.  She will know that when you are diligent enough, even if there is mistakes, you can and will finish what you set out to do.  She will know that each and every stitch was sewn for her with lots of love.  She will know it is for sure not cookie cutter, factory made.  So even with all its mistakes I am happy to have it and give it to her. 

This afghan was crocheted by my mother for my daughter.  One of the layers on her bed.

This is the back.  You cant really see all the squares too well but they are there.

Here it is on her bed

Iron Craft Challenge: Hometown- Rochester,I could not get the aluminum foil off th NY

I could not get the aluminum foil off this.  Eh, a little shine.

Me and the kids had some fun with Perler beads.  I made a lilac flower (please use your grace and imagination to pretend that I actually made something that vaguely looks like a lilac- humor me!). 

Lilac's are huge here in Rochester.  I read in Victoria magazine in the 90's that us, Rochester, NY and Minneapolis are two of the major lilac centers.  We have an annual lilac festival here that attracts visitors from all over.  It is one of my favorite things to do in the Spring; walk around the park and inhale the scent of lilacs and just marvel at their color and beauty.

While my Perler bead lilac may be lame, the lilacs here in Rochester are most certainly not.

My five year old and her friend did a mighty fine job here, don't yah think?

Glacier Block II

Here is another piece for my glacier quilt.  I love that it is so wonky.  This kind of thing does take longer to piece.  There is no set format so there is no assembly line production.  Each piece has to be customized for the piece you are adding on to.  Having said that, it does not get boring because you have use your brain quite a bit. 

JACKPOT: Scraps!

 I just bought a new sewing machine that I am super excited about.  All I want to do is sew.  Sew. Sew.  My small den is being over run by WIP's ( I assume that means works in progress). While I was there for some of my training on my new machine I saw they had a some bins with scraps in them and some plastic bags. I could fill a plastic bag for 3.99.  It actually was a little more full than what you see above.  I had a bunch of blues that I used to make a glacier block.  You can see it peaking in the corner there.

I am not big into Halloween but I thought these were mighty cute.  I am going to make my daughters some bags for Halloween.

Here is a little more detail of what I bought.  I love the batiks.

Basting My King

I had the good fortune of having some lovely ladies come over and help me baste my quilt.  The quilt I am working on right now I had pinned.  So this was my first time basting with stitches and stretching it on a frame.  I am hoping it will lay flatter as a result.  I think pinning is okay for smaller projects but this quilt above is king size.  I am very excited to see it is making its way to my lap! And then of course on my bed.

Iron Crafters: Contest Challenge

Here is my entry for Iron Crafter!  Yea, finished!

I had some technical difficulties with my sewing machine so I was a little under the wire.  Literally I put the last stitches on an hour ago..  I have a brand new machine and I am having some adjustment issues.  Once I am fully up and running I will be in the groove.  Right now I am struggling to learn all the ins and outs of my new machine.

Before border/trimming.

My intention was to make a decorative center for my table.  I wanted to use a star for a snowflake kind of effect.  I was going to applique it on to the glacier square.  But I liked the glacier square so much I decided to keep going with that and make myself a throw for the couch.  So instead I made a hexagon shape and want to put some decorative trim on it but haven't found anything to my taste yet.  I am submitting it 'as is'.

Glacier

A new block for the Quilt Story contest.

I like looking at wonky quilts.  I would like to take a class about them or learn more about them through books.  I sat down today with some of my blue scraps and pieced together a crazy wonky square.  These things kinda take on a life of their own. I am calling this one Glacier.

My Block for Quilts Story Block Party

Here is my block for the block party!

I used yo yo's to sew in the bubblegum machine.  When I bought these Kona solids, I was just creating a solid stash.  I thought, will I use these super bright colors?  Oh boy, did I.  I actually had no gray and was really bummed to have to go to the store just to get a tiny bit of gray for the center.  Then I thought I should just look through my scraps, just in case.  There was this 3 by 3 piece of gray.  I do not remember using it for anything, clothes, crafts or whatever.  I was very grateful to have found it.  It saved me some cash and some time.

I did a Log Cabin design for the bottom portion.  For the top I did large Drunkard's Path pieces. The yo yo's give the circles a little dome, which adds to the feeling of gum balls. I couldn't be more happier on how this turned out.  I always feel like the "Jill of all trades, Master of None".  For once I had to take a step back and say hey, this came out pretty good.    I am pleased.  And  it was really, really, fun to boot !

Just wanted to let you know about the cool block party.  I heard about it on Twin Fibers. If you click the button below it will link you directly to Quilt Story for all the details.  Believe me you don't want to miss out if you love fabric.  Head on over there to check out the details.  I am pretty excited to see everyone's blocks.

Iron Crafters: Week 5-

While hearts may be a bit kitschy to some, they certainly are not for me. I have two young daughters who, of course, go crazy for this stuff.  As you can see, I also went crazy for hearts this week for the Iron Crafters Challenge. I made the loot bags and used some scrap ribbon/embellishment I had laying around.  I just folded over the top two times inside, placing the ribbon inside the seam and top stitched. It's a very simple gift pouch.

I saw this cute little card in Martha Stewart's magazine, Living.  This one I am going to give to my husband.  But I will probably make the girls one too.

These are little pins they can wear for school on Valentines.  We made construction paper woven hearts for school Valentines and attached hugs and kisses candy. With the felt I used pins to hold it in place while weaving and then sewed it with a blanket stitch.  I finally had a chance to try that stitch.  My Mom had given me a fleece blanket years ago with a blanket stitch sewed all around.  I love how it looks.

Then I saw some cute hair pins at this site that were just adorable.  I did the blanket stich on these too.  Comes out much nicer with thicker thread.

I doubled the felt to give it a little heft.  Then when I placed the hair clip on the back I cut a small hole in the first layer of the back to push in the pin.

If you want to join in on the fun, click the button.