Six Month Check Up

Hey there!!

I'm here for my 6-month check-in!

Okay, actually, I'm hoping to get back into the swing of blogging again.

New computer, new job, new resolve... let's get this underway...

 

I was crazy busy over the holidays in my sewing room.

I made 2 full sets of jammies, 2 pairs of pajama pants, a stuffed animal, a quilt, a table runner... and I wanted to do more. I had to draw the line somewhere!

(And of course, no pictures of my work... Too busy!!)

 

I am happy to say that I sold my first commissioned quilt this fall:

 

And a commissioned table runner for Christmas: 

 

So exciting!

 

I finally got to work on my daughter's I-Spy quilt this week...

 

 

Top is done.

 

Back is done. Binding is done.

Now I just have to sweet talk my mom into letting me use her long arm to get it quilted up!

 

I am jumping on the Globetrotting band wagon.

 

Is anyone else joining this BOM with Pat Sloan?

I love a good free Block of the month!

I picked all the fabrics from my stash this afternoon.

 

 

Tip for any of you participating in this BOM...

I will totally screw up my fabric selections about four months in, so I took the supply list provided:

 

 

Clipped up the lists:

 

 

And pinned them on to my fabric:

 

Now in September, I'll remember what fabric goes where!!

 

Happy Quilting!

 

Have a great night everyone!

Blogtoberfest #8 - Manic Monday: Keepin' it Real

This Monday has left me quite exhausted.

 So I give you this:

This is the current view of my dining room table. My craft cupboard has exploded and left me with this chaos. Looking at this photo, I feel like it should be in an I-Spy book.

Can you find the sunglasses?

The grapes?

The dryer venting?

The purple handled scissors?

This is fun! I might have to post the key tomorrow night!

 

Anyway, I mentioned last night that I used up a can of spray paint on some Goodwill items. I wish I would have taken 'before' shots, but have only finished products to show you.

This basket was Christmas red and only $.99. Fall flowers were on sale at Joann's this weekend. This will be a centerpiece for my table. (Once it gets cleaned off!)

This vase was a peachy-pink and also $0.99. I popped the leftover flowers in here and added an orange sparkly bow.

I really like the affect of the spray painted glass vase. This is getting my wheels turning for some 'every-day' decoration for my living/dining room.

Tomorrow starts the Scrappy Stash Quilt Along. I am so excited!

 



And Blogtoberfest continues!

Happy Monday everyone.

I-Spy a finish!

One of the last full posts (Back in July) that I published featured my I-Spy WIP for my son. I finished. Yay!

 

I wanted to finish this in time for his 1 year birthday. I was close, but finished around his 13 month milestone. I hand quilted this with Perle cotton thread. I have to say, I truley love it and am so happy that I put the extra time into hand quilting it!

 

A little close up action:

Love those little hedgehogs!

 

I used a striped fabric for the back and included a few leftover 6" squares for some detail. Although, lesson learned here: Not so easy to hand quilt with all those extra seams in the back!

 

And of course, I had to add a picture of the quilt with its new owner. He does like the quilt, he was just ready for some dinner in this photo.

 

This gets me excited to start an I-Spy quilt for #2, who is due here in December. I'm envisioning 60 degree triangles for her quilt - in purples and magentas!!

 

Hopefully, tonight I will get some work accomplished on my Scrappy Stash QAL scrap prep.

 

Also, if you are up for a challenge this month, join me and about 300 others for Blogtoberfest!

 

 

Vacation Prep

This morning is the quiet before the storm.

This friday, I am hosting a party, and then bright and early(ish) Saturday morning we set off for a week of camping. So there will be lots of *fun* had cleaning the house and camper, trying to pack (sensibly) to accomodate our 11 month old (are we crazy?) for the week, trying to pack ourselves and so on. I've got plenty of lists started. It's the only way my 2nd Trimester brain can keep things organized! I am not anticpating to much time for sewing, but I might get a minute here and there.
Because we will be camping, I need some handwork to do for the week. I decided to take the plunge into hand quilting.

I pulled my son's I-Spy quilt from my WIP pile and went in search for some quilting Inspiration. Both Anna Maria Horner and Mary at Molly Flanders have great tutorials. They both use perle cotton, which I think will give my little man's quilt an even more soft texture and whisical look.
I shopped the web for a good chunk of the afternoon yesterday in search of the perfect perle cotton thread. But I was out for instant gratification, and didn't want to pay express shipping, so I set off to the craft store.

So, the craft store did not have what I was expecting in line of colors in size 8 thread, which is what I set out to get. They did have a nice selection of DMC size 5 thread, so okay, plan B...

I chose a verigated green and verigated orange thread for my quilting. Now I think I might need blue as well. I might have to go back.

So, in search for my quilting hoop this morning, I ran across this old WIP:

This is my lime green, pink and orange double Irish Chain. I started this somewhere around my freshman year of college... 8ish years ago? I was determined to hand quilt it. My mom told me I would be sorry... My 19ish year-old self wouldn't hear it. And now here she is... half quilted and slightly forgotten.

I did find that I had more quilting done than I thought. She might come out of the WIP pile soon.

I hope everyone enjoys what is left of their weekend.

-Miss Melly