Blue Santa (he gets tired of wearing red)

My Christmas Quilt

I really have been sewing, alot. I just haven't been blogging. It is much more fun to see what everyone else has been doing on their blogs. But here is a little of what I have been doing. I finally got my Fat Quarter Shop Mystery Quilt finished. It is a fun quilt. My LAQ almost didn't give it back she liked it so much.

The tree is an in the hoop embroidery project by PJ sold by Embroidery.com. I am doing a Santa in the hoop now. Cute!

Hope everyone is having a good holiday!

Tea Bags

I made these two little Tea Bags using a pattern in the book "pretty little purses and bags". The pattern is by Laurraine Yuyama. I just had to make one because I really love tea and I thought her's were so cute. You can see all of her fun creations here.

Progress on the String Quilt

I needed inspiration to continue working on my string quilt. So I laid all of my blocks out on the floor (after I vacuumed up the dog hair). This is not the permanent layout, but just a motivator. My husband was in awe of all the colors. I think it will be very snuggly on my bed (and not show the dog hair!).

Win a New Baby Go

Rush on over to MooseStash Quilting to enter for a chance to win a New Baby Go. The Go's are all the rage in the quilting community now. They look like alot of fun. I am so envious of how easy, fast and accurate they make cutting all kinds of shapes. Think of all the quilts you could make! I for one would love to have the Go just for the applique shapes. I love how the machine embroidery digitizers are creating designs to go with the appliques you cut from dies for the Go. Gorgeous!

Christmas Quilt Flimsy Done!

This is my Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery Quilt flimsy ready for the quilter!

Gorgeous Wild Flower!

Love this wild flower!

I have been busy working on my Mystery Designer Christmas quilt from The Fat Quarter Shop that I started June 2010. Hope to have pictures of the flimsy posted soon, then off to the quilter and home again so I can display it this Christmas. It is really a cute quilt. Love its aqua, red and green colors.

I am loving the rain we have been getting and the hot summer days in between. Hope your summer is perfect!

Gotta love them dog days of summer:p.

I am a Winner!

 I entered my linen backpack in the Summer 2011 tote bag contest at Hatched in Africa. The rules were to sew a bag and decorate it with HIA machine embroidery designs and add some bling. The designs I chose were from the Jacobean Jewels collection and the pattern I used for the bag is Butterick 4147. I added swarovski crystals for my bling. My bag won 2nd place!!! I actually won $100.00 to use towards some more of their beautiful designs. I so enjoyed picking out new designs. I already have new projects dreamed up to use with them. If you love machine embroidery, HIA designs are awesome!

I've Been Busy

I went to the Quilt Shop Hop here in Colorado Springs. Actually I only went to two of the shops ( my favorites of course). It was the Southern Colorado Shop Hop which includes Castle Rock, Parker, Colorado Springs, Woodland Park and Pueblo and maybe more towns, I'm not sure. Anyway, I went to Ruth's Stitchery and High Country Quilts. I came home with a couple of patterns and rulers and this Joyful Christmas Border Stripe by makower uk which I made up into a 60 degree tablerunner. I always enjoy seeing patterns the stripes make as they turn on the angles.

I have been working on a strip quilt also. It is fun just putting strips together without matching anything. I also have a new computer that has been so enjoyably occupying my time. That and my new NICU job at the newest hospital here in town. Hope you are having a great summer!

Bugs in my Daisies

This cute summery table runner made by me from a pattern in the May/June 2011 McCall's Quilting magazine goes to my daughter. I had fun with this one. I added machine embroidery (see the little bird house ) and alot of free motion quilting. I am still working on my FMQ but get more comfortable with it all the time. Maybe one day I will actually be kinda good! I love a finish, now I can start a new project!

Guy Table Runner

My son requested an everyday table runner. He likes to put them on his dressers to protect the wood and also to add a little decor to his room. Probably he just knows I like to make him things. Anyway I found a little material leftover from the lap quilt I had made his grandfather several years ago. I know he will remember the quilt and his grandfather when he sees this table runner. Recently he hung all of his tools in the garage precisely, just like the fabric. I am sure he will appreciate his new table runner.

A Birthday present for my Mom

My mom gave me some sweatshirts to embroider for her about a year ago. Machine embroidery on sweatshirts is not my idea of a good time, so I put it off. I bought a new hoop-it-all embroidery hoop for my embroidery machine and decided to try it on the thick sweatshirts. It worked great and I managed to embroider all three of these sweatshirts in one afternoon quite painlessly. The designs are from Embroidery Library. I love the hummingbird. Check out the detail by clicking on the picture to enlarge it.  My mom loves sweatshirts and I am sure these will make her happy. I might even do a few more now that I have discovered how great my new embroidery hoop is!

Even More Bunnies!

This was a UFO that I started a few years ago. It is a Nancy Halvorsen design from her "Easy Does it for Spring" book. The bunny garland. I like the way it turned out, but I think it's time to do something non-bunny related :-p

Spring Table Mat

I made a new table mat in pretty Spring colors and look who hopped on it! This is the cute little bunny I found during my latest garage sale shopping excursion. He looked so sad I just had to bring him home. He looks like chocolate, good enough to eat. Yummy!

My Bunnies are Home

Didn't my framer do a great job!

More Bunnies

A Spring pillow for my daughter. The embroidery is from Embroidery Library and has 76,567 stitches. It took me most of a day to machine embroider it. Just think, it took me over a year to cross stitch the bunnies below and a day to embroider these bunnies. I love both techniques, the process and the outcome. You have to admit that machine embroidery is the best for instant gratification though. Which do you prefer?

Bunnies

I finished stitching my bunnies. Now to get them to the framer.

Bad, Bad Blogger!

Life can be so distracting. I have neglected my blogging for too long. I have also been neglecting my sewing machines and all of that beautiful fabric in my closet. I have been stitching though. Here is what I am working on. I am getting close to having it finished, then I  will take them to the framer. I plan on having these bunnies done for Easter!