What I've been up to:)

A doll quilt made for my great niece!

                             
                               Baby blanket made from stash for charity
                                                            

Chief Ronin

                                               

Keeping the granddog entertained:)



Quilt for co-workers new baby!



new toys!

Spa day!!!

Family

Memories and regrets:( 

Yummy:p

Quilting on my new Baby Lock Tiara!
Hope everyone is having a great year!



Pansys

Practicing my quilting. This is a paper pieced wall hanging by MH Designs called Pansy Garland. I quilted all over tear drops in the background and free motion feathers in the border. Then I added a few buttons.

Not an expert but having fun and getting better every day:).

Winter Decor

I made a snowflake runner using an Accuquilt snowflake and machine embroidery from here http://shop.b-quilts.com/ .   This runner was made to practice my FMQ. You can see some of my swirls that I am learning from Amanda Walters on http://www.craftsy.com. I used the faux piped binding again because I really like the added touch of color at the edge and I really like machine sewn binding. The white snowflakes are made with Fairy Frost fabric and the rest is batik.  I think it turned out beautiful and I am gifting it to my son. Hope everyone's New Year is starting out great! 

Christmas Projects

This is a Bird Brain design that I finished this summer. My first redwork project. There is beading and wool embellishment along with ric rac and pom poms. I have enjoyed having it to decorate for the season!

This little mini quilt is machine embroidery, prairie points and bells. Am really trying to add embellishments but as you can see I believe less is better. Besides I like really quick projects. Then move on to the next:) I wish I had the patience to create works of art that you see at the quilt shows. I am working on it!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

 

More Baby Quilts

These 2 quilts are soon to go to their new homes. The Zig Zag quilt goes to a friend's soon to be born second son and the Animals in Automobiles goes to my nephews son. Lots of fun bright colors to make them smile! The embroidery designs are from Embroidery Library and stitched out on my Brother 6 needle. I quilted them myself.

I have a New Great Niece

Here is the quilt I made for my new great niece and the matching bib.

And here she is with her happy dad.

Life is great!

 

A Quilt for a New Baby Girl

 

Do you like the colors? My daughter assures me these colors are in.
I just tried a new to me binding technique. All done on the machine. I love the way it came out. Here is the link http://www.52quilts.com/2012/05/tuesday-tutorial-susies-magic-binding.html. Try it, I think you'll love it too!
The back of the quilt is Minky (really the faux stuff from Joann's). Very soft! This quilt is washed and ready for the new baby's arrival.

 

Bags for the Bag Lady (me)

Check out the zipper on the suede bag with my name on it! It has a wrap around zipper. I found the tutorial at AnnTheGran.com . The blue bag was made with ByAnnie.com Soft and Stable stabilizer. See how nice the bag stands up. The material is Pure by Sweetwater. And two little zip-around bags to match. Bag lady heaven!

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!