Happy Birthday!!!

Today is my sweet Mother's 80th birthday. She is a sassy Southern gal who is still going strong despite bouts with 3 separate cancers... arthritis in her hips and knees from chemotherapy.... damage to her heart and eyes due to an undiagnosed Thyroid disease... the woman will not slow down!  Active in her church.. busy with her friends... checking on others .... taking meals to them... does her crossword puzzle, cryptogram and jumble each day... reads... rarely watches TV... talks on the phone as much or more than any 13 year old girl... she is a hoot and I adore her and am thankful to still have her in my life!

A few years ago a group of quilty friends made a 1930s repro churn dash as a love quilt for a dear friend going through a tough time.  I had the privilege of putting all the blocks into a top and finishing up the quilt.  Mother saw it and thought it was for her!  She was very disappointed to learn I was mailing it off to someone else.  Well she has her own now and I think it looks great on her bed!

I whipped up the blocks... the mad quilter did the rest... quilting and binding (gotta love a man who will bind a quilt for you!)... we also made 2 throw pillows from some left over blocks (I got carried away and made a few more than I needed!)

We snuck over to Mom's recently and laid the top (without borders) on her bed to see how much drop we needed.  I think we did a great job with the size! I just love it.

Tonight we slipped over to Mom's while she was at church and got everything set up... we went back to drop off a mum for her (hubs heard her say she wanted one).  She was just getting home, so we stayed a bit. She never left the kitchen! LOL!  Couldn't think of a reason to send her to the bedroom. So we came on home. About an hour later the phone rang... she loves it!  I have no doubt she has been on the phone telling her friends about her birthday present.  LOL!

This is probably one of my favorite quilts ever... partially because it looks great... partially because it was made for my sweet Mother... and mostly because it made her heart sing!  I don't think I have done that too often in the past 49 years... more heart ache and stress and frustration etc. The joys of parenthood. So if I can make hers sing... WOW!  I have accomplished a great thing!

"Belle"

Too busy to blog or quilt lately....

Life is so full and busy lately... and that means less time to quilt or blog.. not fun!

There are a number of things in the works....

A baby quilt for a little girl due in September. The HSTs are done.. now I have to decide how I want to lay them out..

This way:

or This other way:

Here is where I got the colors I used for the HSTs...

This dot fabric will be used for a border for sure!

I am also going to try my hand at making a denim baby big. Saw this post (Recycled Denim Bib  ) with the how-to and just could not resist!  Pulled an old pair of jeans from my daughter and a scrap of fabric to test this out.

Hubby has a BIG project going. A sweet girl named Morgan had a quilt top her grandmother made for her years ago. She asked if we could quilt it.  We got the quilt.. it is huge!  Morgan's grandmother said she was aiming for queen size. I think she may have overshot that a bit! LOL!  Hubby added a border There was none and we didn't want the binding to cover any of the red squares... which are really a reddish pink in person than a true red-red.  Got a back and batting.. sandwiching this one was a bear!  Here is a look at the quilting, so far... I think it is going to look great when it is done and I know Morgan is going to cherish it!

Warning: Blog Reading can be costly! LOL!  I was reading some quilting blogs and saw in one where the blogger was selling off some of her stash. I zipped to her etsy shop and found I was a tad late.. most everything was gone.. but there was a bundle of fabric designed by Sandi Henderson left. I LOVE Sandi Henderson's designs, so I snatched it up!  Don't have a clue what they will inspire, but I know I love looking at them!

I posted awhile back where my son's girlfriend and I did some crafting and she created a cute little applique tree pillow. We had another crafty day earlier this summer. She wanted to make another pillow. This one is larger and coordinates with the small one. Turned out great!

There are 2 completed baby quilts I need to photograph and post... soon!

In the meantime... here's to hoping we all get more time to create!

"Belle"

Catching Up in Blogville -- Part 1

I cannot believe I have not blogged in 2 months!  Good Grief!  I knew it had been a while, but had no idea how big a while.  Lots of quilting and sewing has been happening here... so on with the catch up... buckle up, it is going to be a long multi-post ride!

JJ Sews...

JJ is my son's girlfriend. She is a sweetie and loves to craft. I have posted some of her creations before.   She made a really cute pillow earlier this year with a tree and leaves. She decided to make a small companion pillow with just leaves... turned out so cute. We found this great sage green polka dot fabric in the stash for the background:

She also decided to make herself a mug rug.  Very basic one, but very cute. Love the fabrics she chose... again, from the stash:

And because she did so well and loved making her mug rug, she decided to make one for her mom for Mother's Day.  Her mom's loves Scotties like I love Dachies and my friend, Rhonda, loves Corgis. (There is just something about those small dogs with big attitudes! )  I remembered there was a bit of Scottie fabric buried among the novelty fabrics, so we went digging and found it. JJ added a few others and voila!  A darling mug rug that was a big hit with her mom!

The Mad Quilter a.k.a my sweet husband....

Hubs has been busy over the past 2 months also. Not so much being the mad quilter (although he did quilt one for me... you will see it later). He has been whipping up quilt tops that will soon be quilts to give away (many to a women's transitional shelter).  Here are his most recent creations:

All the fabric used in these tops came from our stash. I love that!

Part 2 (and 3?) coming later. 

"Belle"

"Crafturday"

Today has been a very crafty quilty day here... and since it is Saturday, I decided to dub it Crafturday. :-)

First the quilt top for a friend's daughter's graduation quilt is done. I have to laugh a bit when I see this quilt. It is so me! LOL!  I love sting quilts... Pink is my favorite color and I love it with green or purple or teal or all of the above... and I love bright fabrics.  Don't worry, I did not make this based on my likes.. I asked the graduating girls mom and my daughter (who knows her well) and they both suggested these colors. Seems the young lady has excellent taste! 

The it was on to a bit of Fusible Applique 101 and creative fun.  My son's girlfriend loves to craft. She saw a pillow she wanted to make. I had a tutorial ( Scrap Buster Pillow ) that was very similar. So we looked it over and hopped to it. She had fabric she had purchased, we added some from the stash and scraps here... mix with a bit of heat and bond lite, some heat, straight-line stitching.. and Voila!  You have a really cute pillow top:

We will finish the back and add an insert soon. (Son and girl had a wedding rehearsal and dinner to attend). 

Check out this cute flower:

Gearing up for that end of the year push....

We are on quilting overload here. Sewing central is also our dining room... so it was down for Thanksgiving and at some point soon ( probably the week before Christmas) it will go down and be down until after the holidays. Sigh!  So Hubs and I are working like made to get everything done that needs to be done before we close the door on 2010.

He got the baby quilt top I pieced a few weeks ago quilted....












And he quilted a quick and easy cheater quilt I put together for my mom for Christmas....

I whipped up some burp pads for a friend's granddaughter...

Several years ago (2005) I made my first Christmas quilt using the Yellow Brick Road pattern and some Holly Fat Quarters my hubby had bought for me.  We dubbed the quilt Holly Jolly.  Last year I thought it would be fun to make a matching tree skirt (I had some of the fat quarters left.)  I got the blocks made, but ran out of time before getting them pieced into a skirt (Starting a Christmas project 2 weeks before Christmas is not wise!).  So I pulled them out and got them pieced together. Hubs quilted them and now we have a lovely tree skirt. Can't wait to see it under the tree!

I used some of the left over blocks to make a couple of pillows for the couch...

Then I decided we needed a couple more to add to the Christmas cheer, so made 2 more with different fabrics... I really love Hubs quilting on these...

Here is one of the couches with the quilt and one of each pillow....

There are still other projects in the works. Hubby is quilting a t-shirt quilt I put together for our son's girlfriend. It will be her Christmas present from us, even though she gave us the shirts and knows we are making it!  I have another pin cushion / thread catcher / sewing organizer to make to send to a friend.  I also want to make up some much needed pot holders / trivets and a mug rug or two.

There will be pictures!

"Belle"

A little fabric fun...

I needed a birthday gift for a certain young lady.  I had planned on going to buy her something, but life just kept getting in the way.  So this weekend I decided to whip something up. I had seen a cute idea for covering a mat in a frame with pieced fabric. So I started out with that plan and tweaked it... her favorite color is green, followed by purple, so I created a small string block with green fabrics and embellished with various fun stitches and purple thread. I opted not to cover a mat with it, however, as so much was lost.  Instead I mounted a photo of her and her fella (who just so happens to be my son) on the block and put it into a frame.

I really loved the look of the string block with the embellishments and wanted to make more, so I decided create a pillow.  I made another string block, larger, with green fabrics again.  Added the decorative stitching with purple thread. Decided to add her name and then to frame it out with the same fabric I used for the letters. I love this fabric!  In fact, I have more and I noticed tonight that I have 2 other green with purple fabrics that look great with it.. I think I feel a purse coming on!

Back to the pillow.... grabbed some scrap cream fabric and polyfill to create an insert. The back of the pillow is split and overlaps to close so the cover can be removed and washed.

I think it all turned out really cute! Cannot wait to give it to her tomorrow night.  "Belle"