Happy Birthday Emily B!

Last week was my best quilt buddy's birthday. So what did I do? I secretly made her a gift. 

I had made a project pouch for Emily when we first met - using my favorite (Kona Curry), and she uses it all the time, so I thought she might like a new one. 

I had a bit of Kona Papaya stashed just for the occasion, and I paired it with a good Tula Pink Fuschia. I'm pretty happy with the fabrics I came up with here. Emily likes a more vibrant yellow than I usually use, so it was fun to work with such bright colors! 

I'm happy to say I even remembered my label and my prairie points on the inside!

I'm hoping to share the details about this pouch at a later date - but for now you can see the front and the inside. :) 

Pillows and Fancy Free Motion Quilting

Recently I've been working on honing my skills at free motion quilting. I've been working mostly on smaller projects which lend themselves well to being densely / intricately quilted. I'm still not where I want to be with this, but I'm working on getting the movement and flow down so that it will translate easily into all my quilts.

On a whim this week I decided to make a pair of pillow covers for my cousin and his fiance. They are getting married this weekend, and as of last weekend I still hadn't decided on a gift - so handmade seemed to be the best option!

You might notice that these are made with the scraps from my "Modern in the City" challenge. The strips and strip sets were already partially pieced so why not? Jason and Andrea have not yet solidified their decor style - but both their living room and bedroom have grey and blue so these can go either place. I sure hope they love them as much as I do!

Handmade Teacher Gifts!

Chocolates and Pouches for the teachers, bus driver, and bus attendant.

Earlier this week I was sewing with my friend Mary Lois, and I whipped up two of my go-to size bags. These are essentially the Pontoms Pouch but using the starting measurements of 10.5" x 6.75" pieces (and the boxed corners are cut using a 1.25" square). They finish at about... 7" x 3" x 3". Perfection. One for Allie's teacher and one for the teacher's aid. 

Then tonight Allie and I had some fun and made this super simple peppermint bark. I found the recipe on pinterest - it's fool proof. We used the crushed Andes mints from the baking isle since I couldn't find any of the peppermint/chocolate baking chips. I'm pretty sure the Andes chocolates are better. :) Oh and we used crunched up pretzels instead of nuts - I hate nuts and didn't want to mess with them. 

Finally while packaging them up I needed a super cute tag which I found courtesy of Rachel @ Imagine Gnats - follow the link for a super cute free printable! 

***

Tomorrow Today will be a bittersweet day for us. It'll be Allie's last day in the Hearing Loss classroom for pre-school. This is really really exciting because she has tested at or above her hearing peers in all areas. But it's sad because we really love her teachers and her classmates. These are her first friendships outside of family. It's precious and heartbreaking. She misses them over the weekends - it's hard trying to explain that she'll be at a different school when we come back after break (there was no hearing loss pre-k class at her home school, so we've been at a different school a bit farther. Her current school doesn't have room for another kid in the regular pre-k class). 

Allie playing animal doctor - on a school field trip.

We've been fairly sure that Allie would be mainstreamed once she got to kindergarten. Her speech is great, and with her hearing aids she has access to almost everything. She was placed in this classroom because she aged out of the state's "Early Intervention" (birth - 3), and wouldn't have any speech guidance otherwise since all the pre-k classes are so packed we couldn't get her into a regular class. 

It makes me think back to when she was just a couple months old and we had only just learned that she had a hearing loss. It was all a whirlwind and we just didn't know what to expect. I've been thinking about that time period a lot recently; a distant cousin of ours recently had a baby who also has hearing loss (the situations are probably not related since she has other issues as well). Our cousin has been stressed out with the same questions, will she hear my voice, will I ever hear her say "I love you"? I'm really grateful for the support we've had throughout the years - for all those sweet people who helped us to teach our baby how to hear and speak! We'll be adding two new teachers to that list after today. Allie's first school teachers who have had so much patience with her! Thanks ladies, for all that you've done to help us! 

Little Gifts...

Pouches for gifts!! Only one of these will live with me.

As a quilter do you find yourself making little gifts for everyone around Christmas time? I always do. It's not something I mind though. I keep an open mind about gift giving - and 90% of my gift giving is handmade. I don't make myself feel like everyone has to receive equal amounts etc every time. Handmade doesn't really work that way. I make what I love to make, so if I know someone in my family who adores whatever it is that I want to make - they may get more. Another thing to weigh when it comes to these things, is that I consider the gift of a quilt to be a gift good for several holidays - you know what I mean, a quilt is a BIG gift of time and artistic energy - not the same as giving a simple zip pouch. :)

WIP - Bella Quilt - Hopefully done by Christmas? 

Some gifts are made specifically with the recipient in mind (color, style, etc), others are made with a use in mind (pouches and pillow cases). So there usually comes a point in the season when I make the list of who gets what. It was pretty exciting this year when I made my list only to find that I had very few Christmas presents left to make! The pouch hop challenge helped a lot!

Mug rugs! Gifts for my MIL's co-workers!

Here's a glimpse into the projects for my family this year: tons of pouches, pillow cases, super hero capes (yet to be made), and hopefully one finished quilt! 

Pillow cases for Christmas!

I'm feeling really excited about giving the pouches. At Thanksgiving time my mom, aunt, sister, and cousins were chatting about different types of zip pouches - it turns out that there has been a bit of jealousy going around -- my sister gets a lot of zip pouches because she buys me zippers in bulk (and constantly uses her 10 million pouches!) With that in mind, I know that the pouches I've made will be well received.

Linking up with WIP Weds over at Freshly Pieced.

RATZ June swap received, and other odds and ends.

Here's the lovely little swap package I recieved from Kris for the June RATZ (Rapid, Tiny, Zakka, swap)! They are so cute and perfect, and they came all the way from Germany! Pretty awesome aren't they? Kris totally had me pegged with the tiny piecing and the Heirloom fabrics! :) I'm really glad that they're mine!

Here you can see them lined up on my white-board in my sewing room. Yes those are the ones to be sent out to my partner below them. I didn't find the time to make a whole set of tiny, so I do hope my partner enjoys the button ones. I'll be sending the HST one too. :) I can't believe June is nearly over now! 

I haven't had a lot of designated sewing time recently. It's hard since I used to sew (or nap) during Allie's school day (about 3 hrs a day). Now not only do I not get that time, but I am also working more hours over the summer which means I'm exhausted more often than not! I'm hoping to get some good sewing time this weekend though!

Here's something I did manage to make. Earlier this week my work friend Mary came to sew, and so did Emily-- they finally met! :) I again didn't get a lot done when they were over, but I did manage to check over my old Singer machine (Wilma) so that a friend could borrow her. She's working well, although she's a little loud and slow (compared to my Juki!). I felt the need to give her a good test run, since I haven't sewn on that machine in a long time - so I made a couple tissue holders. One of them is going with the machine to my friend Martha - who's going to be sewing some wedding related things! :) The tag says "Something Blue" hehe. Doesn't everyone cry at weddings? Tissues are a must!

Happy Mother's Day ..er I'm I little behind in my blogging!

Mother's Day gift for my MIL. A pencil case and tissue holder. 

Yeah, I'm a bit late with my blog posting. I just realised I have pictures from my guild meeting from last month, mother's day gifts, and two month's of Bee blocks to share! That's a lot more backed up than I uaually get! So here is the Mother's day post - the others will follow (I promise, I'm writing them now and scheduling them for later in the week).

My mom's pouch.

For mother's day I played around with some scraps and some pre-fused die-cut shapes. I'm really loving them. I made a pouch for my mom and one for my mother in law. They both feature fabrics (scraps) from their quilts that I made them! I think I like those black polka-dots the best!

Allie made me a sweet gift too - a painted flowerpot and a tissue paper flower. And of course a card featuring a picture of Allie and I. :) Gotta love 3 yr old's drawings!

I also attempted to get a good picture of the two of us. That didn't work out so well. I got some cute ones but I'm not very good at getting both of us smiling in the same picture! 

 This one just about sums up the day! What a cuddly girl!

A little sneaking...

Sometimes I like to stalk people - no not crazy stalk - swap stalk. Meaning I like to look at their likes and fabric favorites, and what they could use that I could make.

Or maybe after 7 million times of hoping a swap mama would pair me up with Elaine, I'm taking it on myself.

Yes. Surprise! Elaine, pretend you're my auxiliary Pretty Little Pouch Swap partner. Or pretend that you're pretty awesome and I have your address because I'm sneaky.

Whatever you want to call it. Elaine is a pretty awesome person and deserving of a little pampering - especially since she's the only blogger to ever warn me ahead of time that she was going to announce that she's pregnant (so I had time to deal with it - if you don't understand then you've never spent 3 yrs trying to have a baby). That definitely merits a baby gift!

So I hope you love it Elaine, a sweet little flannel blanket for your new baby (perfect size for swaddling), and a little pouch just for you. Enjoy!
(Read Elaine's part of the story here - and see pics of that blanket!)

The Masterpiece is Finished!!

Here she is. My mom's quilt! I'm so excited to finally have it finished!! I know my mom had been waiting patiently until Christmas to unwrap it... but maybe she didn't know that I put the finishing touches on it the night before we left to travel home! For the first time ever, I finished the binding by machine (first time on a huuuuge quilt). I mostly did this because I was under a time crunch and didn't want to rush myself on everything else that needed to be done. It turned out perfectly, although I didn't take any pictures of those perfect neat little corners... I know they're there! I used this method for pressing the binding before finishing it

.

 Although I can't remember specifically what the measurements of this quilt were (without searching through my sketches to find the one where I did the math), I think it finished at about 60" x 78" HUGE. 

 It's perfect for snuggling on the couch or throwing on top of Mom's side of the bed... so she doesn't have to share and Dad won't be too hot! 

 Here are some bits and pieces. Pictures here of the prayer written into the binding before sewing it up. I also wrote the same note on the tag that I tied up with the quilt. So my mom can remember it, even though it's hidden inside. I like to think of this as a way to literally wrap someone in love and prayers. I can't claim to have thought of this on my own (I got the idea from a blog friend who sent a block for Rosemarie's quilt). I try to remember to do this for all my quilts.

 Here's mom reading the note. :) She did cry... which was pretty sweet and made me cry a little too. :) She's my mom, what else can I say? 

Here's the only full length photo I've got. It was so overcast and dreary, so I'll have to take some pictures of it once the sun comes out again... come June! lol.

I'm pretty much in love with this quilt and I'm glad my mom loves it too. I designed the whole quilt around that AMH fabric (totem, from her LouLouThi line), which I'd envisioned in those panels from the moment I'd seen it online! The fabrics were picked gradually and eventually I had enough for the quilt. Not worrying about whether it was the exact shade of blue or anything, so it still looks nice and scrappy. The yellow there is Kona Curry, my favorite. That Curry just ends up in everything doesn't it? This time it was with intention. I decided to use only about 15%- 20% of that yellow in relation to the blue. The curry is cut into 1" strips and I wouldn't let myself add more than those strips that I'd cut! 

The herringbone blocks were derived from this tutorial I think I found it on pinterest. Speaking of pinterest here's the inspiration board for the quilt. Also in other details, nearly all of the solid fabrics in this quilt were purchased from Connecting Threads, at just a fraction of the cost of Kona, and it's really soft and great to work with! I completely recommend it. 

If you want to read more about the process of this quilt check out this link for all the posts about it!

Shared over at AmyLouWho's for sew & tell friday!

Christmas Sewing - minus naptimes...

(Aunt Kathy & Dad stop reading now)

Recently my three year old has been fighting that regular nap time. It's not that she isn't getting it, only that she resists until she passes out due to over tiredness. It's an everyday occurrence that we have to keep putting her back into bed several times before she sleeps. I don't think that it's time to get rid of nap time yet - so please don't suggest that, but it is becoming a lot less likely that I'll be getting any real sewing done during nap time from here on (the naps are shorter now too).

With all that being said, I'd love to be sewing right now, but should my girl peek out of her room and see me at my machine she's be way too into my projects to lay back down. So here I am. :)

Today I'll share a bit more of the marathon sewing that I did last week.

First, here are some sweet little baby leggings that I sewed for my cousin's baby Gia. Little Gia, I hope these fit on your cute chubby legs! I tried them on Allie (they fit) to make sure that the ruffled edge looked alright, and Allie asked for a pair. So Gia you get three pair instead of four. I have more knee socks if she really loves them - they took just a few minutes to make and are super cute. I cut the feet off of adult knee socks and used a zig-zag stitch around the raw edge, while stretching them a bit to give the lettuce ruffle. Adorable!

Gah, Blogger isn't working for me today. For whatever reason it rotated this picture. 

Next is a little quilted notebook cover for my aunt. I hope she's not reading this. I would have posted it to flickr to rotate it, but I know she'll see it there! I wanted to make something a little special for my aunt Kathy, since she helped fund my Sewing Summit trip by commissioning me for these table covers. Also, she started me on sewing by giving me my first machine at age... 11? So I pulled together some pretty scraps and just flew with it. This cover fits a standard composition notebook so she can use it for whatever, and replace the notebook as needed. :) Here's the back:

Yes that Kona Curry is slipping into every project these days! I love it! I loosely followed this tutorial, from memory since I'd made them before. the main thing that I did differently - was that I didn't use any batting or quilting, and used a piece of lightweight fusible interfacing as the center inside panel. After stitching it and turning right side out, I pressed it into place. No raw edges at all! :)

 The strap across the side is a bookmark - from this tutorial. I've made them for pretty much everyone. I especially love using fold over elastic for them. :) My family are all readers so they'll be used!

Next here's a quick little skirt for Allie. I used some sort of crushed velvet (the pink) and corduroy (the plaid). The plaid part is supposed to be a little apron... but well I winged it and that's what I get. lol. I think it may be a bit too big for the girl, but I'm not going to have her try it on - otherwise I won't be able to give it to her for Christmas! Again, I loosely followed this tutorial.

Finally, two awesome morsbags for my Dad. I think they're definitely more manly than most things that I make - thanks to Donna from the CMQG for giving me an extra set of fabric! I think they'll be perfect for holding choir music or his paperwork for work. They're nice and durable too. :) Here's the link to the Morsbag page.