Embroidery Mini Quilt Swap

I really liked this Embroidery Mini Quilt Swap held over at Quilting Gallery. It was fun to see how one design could look so different. Here is mine. You can check more out at flikr. I also love these small embroideries because they are perfect to take to swim lessons or tee ball. What else am I going to do for a half hour or so. I can only facebook or play tetris for so long on my phone. :) I think next I am going to do a set of dish towels. That is if I can find where I put the dish towels I bought several months ago for this project!

Oh, Doll Quilt Swap 9 is on its way for sign ups. I saw it late so I hope I made it in.

Phew, it's done!

I don't know what convinced me to make this but I did. I had seen the pattern numerous times and wanted to make it but it seemed above my skill level. Well, my mom and I were shopping and she said she would help me make it if I wanted so that's what we did. I made the Amy Butler Weekender bag with the help of my mom. The only thing my mom did was help me translate the instructions, guide me and I made her sew the outside bag together although I could have done it but it got really thick and I was using her sewing machine and I didn't want to be the one to break it. We only broke one presser foot! At least it wasn't her $10,000 machine! It actually wasn't horribly difficult to make just a lot of it to make. I can't wait to use it! We did make a few changes. I added pockets on the inside and instead of making a stiff base we only used the false bottom. I put all the stiffener in the false bottom and used Velcro to hold the false bottom in place. I still plan to put some sort of closure on the outside pocket. I haven't decided but I think I will need something to hold its shape.

The fabric is Anna Maria Horner's home dec fabric and the lining is just a light colored bottom weight. The trim and the side pockets are a black bottom weight.

Would I recommend making this bag? I guess it would depend on how badly you want something unique. The supplies cost maybe $75 and the labor...add about 15 or so hours to that. But I do love my new bag!

I'm awful...

First, I must apologize for my awful blogging. Part of my problem is I haven't done anything news worthy. The other part is I take pictures with my phone and check the Internet on my phone but the phone doesn't allow me to post pictures to blogger or flickr. Its really annoying. I hope they fix that soon so I can post at a moments notice if so inspired.

So what I have done. I went to a recycled fashion show or rather a trash show. It was the 10th Annual Re Store Trash Fashion Show. The Re Store is a store in town that will come to your construction site or you can take stuff to them. They will tear your house a apart and salvage 95% of the housing materials to be reused. Its pretty awesome. To the fashion show...The people are so creative and some if it wasn't made out of trash bags and would be really hot, I would think of wearing it. Enjoy the pictures. I apologize for the quality of some. The top one is made of inter tubes and newspaper. The second is of old umbrellas, third, onion bags, and finally, paper off a table at one of those restaurants you get to doodle on. People were extremely creative. I only posted the mellower ones! One of the ladies brought her kimono that was in Ripley's Believe It or Not.

I also made a few dolls. I used the Jane pattern from Bit of Whimsy. They are pretty simple to make. The first one below I donated to the Kids Safe Whatcom County Fair. The Trauma department at the hospital that I share an office with was one of the sponsors so I thought I would nice. I was lucky to see the recipient of the doll. I hope they like it!

The second doll was for M's friend who had a birthday. We were at Target looking for a present and I asked M if she would like it if I made her friend one and her response was, "Yeah, even though you haven't made mine yet." I'm such a bad mom. Its on my list. :) I also made a doll quilt too but I forgot to take a picture.

I am working on some other projects. Don't give up on my blog yet. I figure when I am FINALLY done with my job I will be able to focus on my projects and my blog. I have 2 months left - word of advice never give 6 months notice - the waiting for the end is torture. Oh, and they haven't posted the job yet! I can't wait to be done. I have a huge list of things I want to get done and start! Thank you to those who have stuck around.

A Few Blocks and Exciting News.

So here are a few blocks I made for some quilting bees I am in. I don't remember whose is whose. I took these with my phone and they have been there a while. Which is why the aren't the best photos. They are really simple blocks. Its hard for me to think really big when I see the amount of fabric I get. Okay - its just hard for me to decide.

This one she was going for complicated versus simple. I did little string blocks and lots of white. I think I over did the simple but I didn't have enough fabric to do too much.

This one was a 9 patch block. You sew nine squares together and then cut directly down the middle of the block and the other direction and turn two of the four squares and sew them back together. Kind of ingenious.

The third was do anything you like going along the lines of a quilt she liked. She sent a link to the quilt photo and we just winged it. I added the orange and sent her a little extra to incorporate it into her quilt somewhere so it didn't stand out. I really hated cutting those little mermaids heads in half but I had no choice.

This one is actually the starts of a mini quilt. I hated it so I folded it up and put it away. I know - I should have just finished it - I may have liked it.

So did I tell you I quit my job? I gave my notice last month. I have till June 30th. Its the busiest time of the year and I am the only one that does my job so it would have been very cruel of me to leave any sooner. Plus they take forever to hire so I figured I'd give tons of notice because after June 30th nothing happens until August. So what am I going to do with all my free time? Well, sew of course. Reorganize our house - my hubby and I are getting claustrophobic. We have a very small house and lots of junk. And exercise, I need to get healthier and not working I won't have an excuse, right? We will see how long it takes me before I get bored. My daughter will be in Kindergarten so she won't be around to entertain me. :) Sad, isn't it.

Mini Quilts Galore

So I signed up for three mini quilt swaps at one time. I know I am a glutton for punishment. I just love doing them so much. So, the first one was for STUD (Swap Till I Drop). The theme was "Love is in the Air" I tried a couple of different things but after I made this I was so pleased with it. It looks so cute. The picture really doesn't give it justice. That's a vintage button in the middle. I was going to make a heart but I thought the button actually looked better. Almost broke my machine putting it on. I was too lazy to hand sew it and it jammed with lots of thread and the mini quilt stuck to the machine. Disaster but I freed it with no injuries.

The Second swap was the Winter Themed Mini Quilt. Its through the quilting bloggers link on the side. I wasn't in the snowy mood. We have had phenomenal weather here and the beautiful black skies with the large moons really inspired me and then I found an article in a really old Quilting Arts magazine that I tried to copy. I, of course, didn't come close but I was pretty happy with it. I hope my swap buddy likes it. She is in the Netherlands with no blog so hopefully she will send me an email when she gets it.My third one was for Doll Quilt Swap 8. My partner really likes saturated colors with a white contrast and I wanted to play with curvy sewing that I learned in the Jean Well's class I took in November. My husband was unimpressed with it but my mom said it looked great and she was impressed with my sewing. Who should I trust? Non sewing hubby who is always brutally honest or my Mom who has years of experience but wants to encourage me? I think I will wait to see what my swap buddy thinks. :)Tonight I am going to start on a mini quilt for myself but using purples and a Kaffe Fasset print. Wish me luck. I hate cutting into fabric with no real idea of what I want to do plus I can't get any more of that fabric until November when the Quilt Show is back in town.

Hope all of you are well and I apologize for my absence. Now I have to turn off my computer before I check my work email. Its a bad habit I have. Really it is!

Testing My Phone

I haven't been very good at blogging lately since I never turn my computer on now that I have my droid. If i can post pictures I will be extremely happy with this app and you'll get sick of me. :)



So apparently I can't post pictures that aren't from a url. Hmmm...bummer.

Fall Inspired Mini Quilt

So, I also participated in the Fall Inspired Mini Quilt Swap over at the Quilting Gallery. I received my swap yesterday and I LOVE it. I got it from Carmen at Chunky Dunk Quilts. I could not wait to put it up. My mom had given me these cool quilt racks for my birthday this weekend so I wanted to use them. I went to my hall closet where I keep my girly drill (it was a small one perfect for little things around the house) and I totally got distracted looking for it and cleaned my closet. And to make it even worse - I cleaned off a whole shelf and my first thought was "oh, I could put fabric in here." My husband would kill me since I have huge shelves in our guest room full of fabric! By the way, I never found my girly drill which means my husband used it. I wonder where it is. I guess I will clean the hall closet looking for it tonight! Or I could just get a screw driver and screw it in by hand. I'll have to take photos of them and show you. You will want the racks too! Plus my mom made me a wall hanging which I will have to show you the picture of once I hang it.

If you haven't heard yet - head over to Etsy and do some shopping in the Craft Hope section. All proceeds are going to Doctors Without Borders - Haiti. They are taking donations as well through today. But the least you could do it check it out. I ended up buying a couple of pdf patterns.

My Favorites Mosaic

As I said before I signed up for the Doll Quilt Swap 8 and incase my partner is stalking me - I thought I would put a mosiac of my flikr favorites. I have a lot so forgive me. I could just add tons more too! I apologize to all those that I didn't credit too. If you check out my favorites on flikr - samcrawley - you can find who it is. I just couldn't figure it out today. Sorry! Just one of those days.

Fall Inspired Mini Quilt

I finally finished my Fall Inspired Mini Quilt. I wasn't feeling it. I actually made two. One had trees and then this one. I wasn't feeling the other one even more. Now that this one is done I actually like it. I don't know if you can tell but the apple is similar to one in the apple fabric. I thought it would be cute. I just felt like I could have done more but I think if I did - it would have been too much. Simple is better sometimes. Now I just have to get it in the mail before Monday. I think I can, I think I can. :)

I also just signed up for the Doll Quilt Swap 8. I really like the doll quilt swaps. I feel so accomplished when I finish my little piece of artwork. If you have done quilting bees before - you should try one of these out. Its too late for these two but you can also try STUD. They do it monthly. You just have to catch it on the right day. I think I even got my mom hooked on it. Check out hers. I couldn't figure out how to steal her picture but it is pretty cool.

Have a great day!

Anna aka Grandma, GM, Nana

My grandmother passed away last week. Its been a fight for her the past 6 months so I am happy for her that she was able to pass. She hated being sick. She had never really been sick until she turned 90 so 90 years of good health, she hated not being healthy anymore. Everyone who needed to be there was there and was able to say their good byes and all the adults are doing okay. My daughter is doing better. She had a rough time to start. She was pretty close to her Nana.

To commemorate my grandma, I am going to overload you with pictures of her through the years.

This is my Grandma and Grandpa. They met on the Conney Island bumper cares when my grandma drove over his hat. When he returned from the war they wed two weeks later and the city girl who never left New York moved to the other side of the country with a man she barely knew. This is my favorite picture. I always knew my grandma as a farm girl. She never got gussied up or wore a lot of jewelry and in this she looks like a model.

My Grandma and Uncle Jerry. Poor kid wearing a dress. :)

M and her Nana. The two of them were troublemakers. I'd take them shopping and they would disappear or I would catch them running down the aisles at Costco.

More trouble making. She started my brother's addiction to chocolate.

The whole family annoying her at once. We loved annoying her. She had a great sense of humor.

Thanks for letting me share my grandma with you.