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!)

Sewing With Michelle!

For the first time in our years of friendship, this week Michelle and I sewed together! She's taken up the hobby here and there since I left Ohio, and she brought a couple projects to work on. I made us each an apron (above) although I didn't get a picture of Schell's before she left! I used the tutorial here.

And Michelle worked on a sweet baby blanket for her friend's new baby (who we visited yesterday). She put the blanket together and I helped by free motion quilting the heart label in place.

She also made two of these pillowcase bags. Using this tutorial.

I also worked on bee blocks for this month and planning for my month which is next month.

It was pretty amusing sewing together, after being friends for so long. lol. 

A Good Mail Day!!

Hawthorne Threads never fails to amaze me. While they may not tie their bundles up with pretty scraps of fabric like Sew Mama Sew does, they do ALWAYS ship in a timely manner! I ordered this fabric about two and a half days ago - using the generic cheapest mailing method. And here it is!

Merry Christmas to me! Thanks to my lovely husband who gave me a one size fits all gift certificate! I bought this  lovely FQ bundle of Joel Dewberry Heirloom. It will be used for my month (Feb) of the {Sew} Beautiful Bee. I'm really excited about it. 

I also got a bit more of my fav. print.

And a couple half yards of pretties that I just couldn't pass up. I can't remember what that blue one is, but it's so much prettier in real life and now I wish I'd bought a bit in each color. :)

This has nothing to do with this post but I have a serious desire to make some 3" sawtooth stars. Serious. After seeing this on flickr.

Also, I want to make something like this. Free pieced and wonderful. I've never tried the ringo-pie type pieced stuff. I'm a little intimidated but who knows? Maybe I'd be great at it!

Oh and I want to make one of these ModMood Quilts. If I could figure out how to make it miniature I would.

And... while we're daydreaming, I want to finish my Bee quilt from last year! Now!! :)  I just need to finish piecing the backing (I have about 1/4 of the backing left to finish)... then it's on to quilting that bad boy!

Swoon Newborn Quilt.

About a two weeks ago my friend/co-worker had a sweet little baby girl. I think there's something about a newborn that makes people who are trying to conceive able to forgive/stop being angsty about a friend having been pregnant. Since of course we all know newborns cry a lot, and nursing is hard those first weeks, and the poop a lot... so who could possibly hate the parents of a newborn? lol. Ok so maybe in my head this quilt was about being a peace offering after being angsty about this friend having been pregnant when I wasn't. But whatever. lol.

Just when we heard the news that baby Mina was born, I had gotten a FQ of this gorgeous out of print Good Folks fabric in the mail (which then made me order two more yards of it!!). I couldn't resist pairing it with some Kona Curry for a more modern baby look. 

It's a fairly simple quilt, just the one block with a big border of white. I found the perfect grey polka-dot for the binding and quilted it up in just an hour or two! Perfection!! 

I free motion quilted the label. I think it turned out pretty awesome. It's all washed up now and ready to be delivered! Hopefully I'll no longer be sick later this week so we can stop by to visit baby Mina! 

Bee {A little baby}!

I've kept my lips sealed about this for a while, and now it's time to share!

Credit: Michelle Click on the link to see who made each block

A few months ago Michelle of I like Orange Too contacted me on flickr to ask if I'd be interrested in helping to make a quilt for our mutual flickr friend's new baby. The friend, Jules (RelishAustralia) had no clue we were working on such a project - so it was a nice fun surprise!

Michelle requested sawtooth stars made with a certain palate in mind (I can't believe that so many of us got together and somehow we did actually achieve that color palate!). I made three stars, they're really addicting. And working on this project inspired my tiny quilt project.

I also remembered (at the last moment) to add in my little seam allowance prayer for the baby. Don't give me the credit here, I stole this idea from a friend who helped out with Rosemarie's quilt - it's an unexpected little joy to include. I try to add a seam allowance prayer in each of my quilted gifts.

The prayer? "I pray for a long happy life for the baby, and for a happy family always. Always know that you are blessed."

And now for the obligatory "baby on quilt pics!" Jules received the quilt a couple weeks ago and it was awesome to see her reaction to it! Here is Violet enjoying her quilt!!

Credit: Jules

Thanks Michelle, for including me in this awesome little project! And, thanks Jules for being an awesome Flickr swap buddy! 

Blogger's Quilt Festival

It's that time again! Blogger's Quilt Festival! This time around I'm going to share with you Gia's Quilt. The plan for this quilt has been sitting in the back of my brain for a long time... and I didn't intend to be making it as a baby quilt for someone else... but that's how it worked.

First a little background. My cousin Chris met a girl (he's older than me... and has never really brought girls around... or really been around a lot himself), her name is Lizzie. Once Lizzie was part of the picture it was like suddenly there was my mature, cool, fun cousin Chris that we'd never really seen (no offense Chris). And Lizzie took to our family really quickly too - we love her! When they announced that she was pregnant I knew I had to make her baby a quilt (Chris' mom, my aunt Kathy has been pivotal in my crafting journey... it was fitting to make her first grandchild a quilt). I started off with a pretty basic idea, grey fabric, and some strips of various prints added among the grey... it sat on my design wall for months. It wasn't pretty enough - Lizzie had become more and more a part of our family and I think part of me felt that she deserved something sweet and pretty and gentle. So that's how I came to pour a lot of myself into this quilt.

Chris and Lizzie had found out that they were having a girl so I went with a light pink/grey/white color combo. I was a little disappointed in the lack of contrast in some of the blocks so I created a lot more variety in them than I originally planned. In all I love how it turned out.

Late night retreat photo - after quilting and getting the binding attached!

The other aspect of the making of this quilt is that it was almost entirely made during my very first quilting retreat. I had taken a plunge and signed up for the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild's retreat (although I had only been to one meeting) -- it turns out that those ladies are awesome!! I stayed up most of the night on Saturday finishing free motion quilting this baby. Now that is accomplishment! :) It was great having some late night sewing companions too. 

Lastly, I practiced my free motion writing for the label. It took a lot of practice writing "Gia" to get one that was worthy of the quilt, but I love it! Gia was about four months old when she received the quilt -- which is largely due to the fact that we live in separate states.... I love this quilt a lot, and I hope that Gia and her mommy know that they're amazing and that Lizzie is more like family to me than a lot of family I have. :) You guys rock! :) 

That's the story of Gia's quilt... now go check out the other awesome quilts at the Blogger's Quilt Festival