February Sewing So Far!

My Lupine and Laughter quilt top is a flimsy.  I like how this one turned out in my colors.  Different from any others I have done for sure.  

I decided since I made Hazel an H is for Happy doll quilt that I should make an I one for Indigo.  I had to "design" the I myself and it is not quite as good as the H's, but it works.  I do love how the quilting came out and I did that myself too.  Since I was gifting it to Indie for Valentine's Day I decided I better make something for Hazel too.  She gets a little tooth fairy pillow.  She loved it.

Then yesterday I decided to whip up some Frozen sleeping bags to put on the Frozen beds that Kathy 3D printed for them a few weeks ago.  Cannot wait for them to see them tomorrow.  I made mini Olaf pillows too, but not picture yet.

Speaking of 3D printing--Kathy has been making me game inserts like they are going out of style!  I had her make me this cool phone holder for my sewing room too.  

My other favorite thing she has printed me is this!  I update how many books I read whenever I remember.  I am at 22 now so need to get in there and update it!

                                    

I finally tied and bound the most recent Eye Spy baby quilt too.

I decided to make Hope Takes Flight 

for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt for 2026.  Mine may be all butterflies and not so much background, or I may wind up with two of them....no idea yet.  I had a batik charm pack so I started with that and then just added from my batiks.  I have not used them in forever and was contemplating getting rid of them.  Linking up with Angela at SoScrappy.

Attic Stars (Debbie Montgomery quilt from 2021) is finally quilting by Lora and bound by me.  This will be for Kathy's niece Megan and her soon to be new hubby Christopher for their wedding in September.  

Krista (one of my booktubers) has started doing a once a month "Maker Monday" where we get together on the computer and do something crafty while we gab.  I whipped up an entire knitted washcloth last Monday.  Hopefully I will continue to do this each month as they make good gifts!

 

Belated Pictures

This is the front and back of a little doggie quilt I finished up last week. I practiced machine binding on it...now I have watched lots of tutorials and figured out I am supposed to be working on the opposite side of the quilt when machine binding. Today I tried my hand at that on the Carolina Crossroads quilt...I have the binding all attached and then spent about an hour with several different stitch tries and a whole lot of unsewing! The bobbin thread just kept bunching up and making a huge mess on the back of the quilt. I think I am not setting something right on my machine. I put it aside to try on one of my less fancy machines!

The colorful quilt is a dolly quilt for a Christmas gift. Glad to have something started on that front. Today while I was frogging, DJ cut a bunch of strips for for my latest quilt...I decide to jump in and work on Bonnie Hunter's "Smith Mountain Morning" quilt from her Scraps and Shirttails II book. The quiltville swap group is swaping some strips and units for that quilt and Amy over at Amy's Passions Blog got me interested. I really should be working on "Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll" but I am stalled on that which is odd for me.

I took a picture of my cut strips but I haven't had a chance to upload it yet...so just imagine, lol. I borrowed this photo from Bonnie at www.Quiltville.com and if you haven't seen or done a Bonnie quilt, get on over there. I am her number one fan!

A Fabulous Sewing Day!

Last night I quilted up Lily's twin size quilt...well that was after I figured out that the thread I bought wasn't liking my machine or vice versa. Luckily I went over to June's to wish her a happy birthday and bring her some birthday fun and she suggested a differnet thread and then borrowed me some...and she also let me use her walking foot. (It is awesome we have the same Viking Designer Diamond machine!) I have never used the walking foot before and I love it...it is on my list of things to buy. It made quilting this bigger quilt so much easier!

I actually quilted this little doggie quilt with the uncooperative thread, while trying to get it to work. It is okay, served the purpose of getting me comfortable with the walking foot.

Here you can see the back...don't look to closely, but I guess the dog it winds up with will be fine. My sister has two chiuauhuas and so does my mom..they are perfectly suited for my fun little quilts. Today I quilted this little doll quilt which has been waiting forever...and I found a binding in my pile and attached it. Did some hand sewing on it in the car on the way to lunch.

I made and attached the binding on Lily's quilt this morning and DJ has been hand binding it on and off all day. We plan to give it to Lily next weekend when we go to Yuma so she will be working on it all week. My thumb still isn't better...I thought it was from texting on my blackberry but apparently sewing and signing bother it too because I am losing my grip on my right thumb. So DJ said she would do that binding. I need to read a good tutorial on machine binding!

Yes that is Bug in DJ's lap!

This evening I did work a littl on the border for the quilt on the wall behind DJ. Have a way to go on that. I decided to whip up both of the Downy Quiltz for Kids tops that they sent me. They are precut and go really quickly. DJ did ironing and so they went even quicker!

I need to get more batting so I can get these pinned and quilted. All in all it was an awesome, fabulous sewing day. We watched a few movies and listened to alot of Lady Gaga while we sewed. I am happy, happy, happy.

Happy Mother's Day and Happy Birthday Dad

I requested two more Quilts for Kids kits from Downy....these arrived in the mail last week. I need to get these two together to send off to some sick kiddos!
Here is my little nephew Ben making us all do his little pose smile...my brother is holding him, then next is my sister, mother, me and my (step) dad. We celebrated Mother's Day and my Dad's birthday...he is 64!

Can't believe I haven't been gushing about my new phone! This is a Samsung Epic....it is amazing! I can do all the normal phoning and texting on it, but also can play solitare, Angry Birds, and tons of other games. I can read my Nook books on it and surf the net. It is unreal. I am one happy girl..especially because it has a touch screen for typing (also has a slideout keyboard) and I can do a funky slide typing all of which means my BlackBerry thumb can heal. I have been having awful pain in my right thumb and couldn't manage to force myself to text with a different finger...now all that is over, YAY!

Tonight DJ helped my cut a bunch of squares for a type of Eye Spy ish quilt for my cousin Tara's soon to be born son , Koi. We cut enough squares to do two of these as I am forever in need of a baby quilt or two. I just realized that my cousin Crystal had her second son and I don't think I sent her a quilt. Usually I do but I don't have her address...so I better whip one up for that little guy too. I am going to need one suitcase for all the quilts I am hauling back to Wisconsin when we go in June!

As promised, here is one of the two pillowcases I made at June's. Ben got one, and this one will be gifted to some other little one.

Here we are again being a little less silly, this is the picture right before we all did the cheesy dimple thing! Happy Mother's Day all.

Shop Hop Day Two and More

Today I whipped up a little doll quilt for Ayla for Christmas. I just used leftover charm squares. Nothing spectacular, but her doll baby should be warm.

I also made and attached the binding for Short Story in Figgy Pudding.

Pinned it...have just started hand binding it while watching football today.

Pretty impressive stack of fabric I bought on the shop hop yesterday huh? I think I am officially out of control! I need to get sewing!

I finally bought this book though I didn't think it had as much information on the history of barn quilts as I would have liked. I need to go through it slower. I doubt I will be making one of these but I love the idea of it and want to know more.

Here is the fabric spread out so you can see. I got quite a bit of it on the clearance section for really good prices. Stuff I paid full price for I was really in love with. Those there lights with snowflakes on them just had to come home with me. I want to put them in the next Bonnie quilt as shirtings. That black with the flowers is Mary Englebreit fabric...June did her Carolina Christmas mystery with a similar fabric for her background and I loved, LOVED, loved it...so I want to use this in a similar way I think.

You can see I found three grays. I was really happy about that because I think grey is often an overlooked color and I want to do a quilt that features it. That little pink calico just called to me and that cream with the different colored swirl/circle designs on it is the same line as my Bargello Seasons quilt has in it in various colors. It may wind us as the backing for that or something, but I had to have it. The black with the larger colored flowers I also love. I think it would be good for Ann's NYE mystery this year. She usually tells us to have a focus fabric and that may work. I hope I have enough of it, if that is what it goes for. You can also see the figgy pudding fabric which has mostly already become the binding for Short Story.

Here is a picture of most of BJ's purchases. She got a gift for a friend, and lots of fabric. We both bought two of the same fabrics which we got a kick ut of.
I also wanted to show you the clipping from the Spooner Advocate that my sister and I had put in in memory of our dad. I can't believe it has been a year. I found the poem by author unkown on the internet and made a few changes so it would apply to our situation.

And MYSTERY SPOILER ALERT: Stop reading here if you will be making the shop hop mystery and don't want a peak at one version of how it comes out. I have all the clues and would like to make it but it isn't at the top of my current list. I have bindings to put on four quilts, and Carolina Crossroads needs to get done, my quilt history blocks need to get done, my quilt along nine patch/snowballs need to get done, and another QOV from the Amy's Passions blocks needs one more block and then to be put together as well. I also have Pineapple Blossoms in progress with one four blocks done. Plenty to keep me busy!

Enchantment, this one on display at Quiltz.

Oh and I am doing well on my bike almost every day and am down 4 pounds this week! (Total loss 14 pounds!).

Another Good Mail Day and A Duckie Quilt

It was another good mail day at my house. I got a quilting mag (though not my favorite one...) and I got a prize for my Stashbuilder's Sewing Bee they had this week. Flichsa sent me the cutest coasters that look like they are folded into triangles and then buttonhole sewn in the center. I need to find that pattern for some Christmas gifts! I was actually just thinking the other day that I wished I hadn't packed up all of my coasters because the desk I sit at to sew and to use the laptop is nice wood and I was using my Amy Butler book as a coaster which wasn't thrilling me! So now I have two nice coasters and when I get to AZ I will deem them coasters for my quilting studio! You can see in the picture I got a cute little jack-o-lantern wallhanging pattern and some cocoa and tea too. I definately felt like a winner! What a fun group! I won the drawing (lots of people were drawn daily all week) on Tuesday and again on Saturday so I think I have more prize coming my way, lol. I am happy with just this!
I did get in a little sewing tonight before heading out for the usual Margarita Monday with Kathy and Randy. I used leftover duck and blue fabric (from the mystery Kathy did more than two years ago) and cut up a few yellow and orange fabrics to go with it. I sewed them all together just simple like...
And made a cute little Duckie Doll quilt for my cousin Trisha's daughter Serina who will be 3 this weekend!
Here it is after pillowcasing it....and the backing is cute "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly" fabric.
I plan to add my I love you hand label to the back and tie it with orange or yellow floss in the next day or so but viola a bday gift that any little girl should love!