Christmas in May!

Today as the sun is shining and the birds are singing, I am thinking of Christmas!  This week I have finished up some BIG projects and in my stash and projects cabinet I have a Christmas tree skirt I am working on!  I found these great red and white strips on sale at my local quilt shop and thought they would go great alternating with a solid piece of fabric.

 That's when I found this.  It is so beautiful.  The detail is so hard to see here but it is gorgeous!  

Love the white snow flakes!  Actually, I really just LOVE this fabric.  The colors are so Christmas! 

At the Denver Quilt Mart I found this wedge ruler that I have been looking for.  I have only seen it in magazines and I don't want to have to pay shipping on the crazy size!  It is a Phillips Fiber Art Ten Degree Wedge.  It makes a 50 inch circle with 36 wedges.  So I am cutting out 18 red and white wedges and 18 solid Christmas fabric wedges.  I will alternate them to form the circle!  

  

Here is the free pattern that comes with the wedge.  I am not going to make my wedges zig zag, just straight lines.  There was a book that accompanied the wedge that I could purchase that showed how to use this wedge to make butterflies and birds, but I just wanted to make the Christmas tree skirt.  I could use it to make GIANT dresden quilts too I guess!  

Here is the link to the wedge: http://www.phillipsfiberart.com/

While investigating this wedge, I found out they are from Delta, Colorado!  Cool!  Beautiful quilts made with this wedge!!!

Here is the book that went with the wedge.  http://phillipsfiberart.danemcoweb.com/shop/product/quilts-without-corners/ 
Here is a second book that also went with the wedge:
http://phillipsfiberart.danemcoweb.com/shop/product/encore-quilts-without-corners/ 

Happy crafting!

Done, done, done and done.

I recently did some napkins for my husband's silent auction at work.  I did these 4 season trees using some beautiful DMC variegated embroidery floss. 

I did 4 more cocktail napkins also.  The napkins were not the best cotton ones but I liked stitching the patterns!  I used patterns from Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection.  http://www.dreamfollow.com/book.html

This is a great book with a wide variety of patterns to fit all sorts of occasions.  

These are the quilts I have completed for my nephews!  They will be so excited to get them!  In the mail and hopefully in their hands on Friday!

                         

Sublime Stitching: http://www.sublimestitching.com/ is having a little contest to see who's embroidery gets to be the newest shown on the website!  I was not sure about how to stitch this.  This is not a patten I would have normally picked to do, so it was nice to have something challenging.  LOVE the french knot hair and I was particularly proud of the girl in blue.  I was the first to post for the contest so I have not yet been able to compare mine to anyone else's.  We'll see how I fair among the experts out there!  Could be a LOOOONNNGGGG shot but I wanted to try something new!  

    

Going to run the Bolder Boulder on Monday!  Okay, Okay not run but wog (jog/walk)!!!  Here's to hoping I don't come in last of 50,000 runners!  

Happy crafting!  :-)

Last September I started a rag quilt using some flannel cupcake material and coordinating colors flannel material.  I cut the rag squares out using my AccuQuilt Go! Cutter and Rag Die Cut.  I ended up cutting out 270 squares!  LOVE this die cut!  It was so much easier to use the machine to cut the squares instead of using spring loaded scissors for each little cut!

I finished the quilt this last week!  It is so warm and toasty!  I have washed it twice and the lint just keeps on coming!  Cutting and sewing this quilt did a number on my allergies.  The fine lint and fibers were EVERYWHERE!  When I finished the project I had to take the bottom off of my machine to clean out all the fine lint!  When washing the quilt the water was swimming with small fibers! I had to take it out after washing and shake, shake, shake!  Still had to check the lint screen in the dryer every ten minutes!  I did this process twice!  When I took it to the Quilt Council meeting I had strings stuck to my shirt!  They are all over my chair where I cuddle with the kiddos and all over the bed comforter!  

LOVE it anyway, I may just need to wash it a couple more hundred times!  Every time I wash it the rags get puffier and puffier, so it's all good!  

The cupcake fabric is so cute!!

Happy Crafting!

Iris

I started working on some prairie style curtains.  They are going to be made of cotton 30 X 30 tea towels. I am going to applique some Iris flowers on them.  The Iris will be outlined in black to make them look like stained glass.  First we are going to dye the towels in a coffee grounds bath to give them a antiqued look.  

These are the towels after dying them.  When I ironed them the steam smelled like coffee!!!

This is one of finished panels for the window.  It is 22 1/2 X 24 inches.  They will be hung with a tension rod.  

Close up of the Iris Flower itself.  I liked the way they turned out.  I started by making a pattern stencil out of cardstock paper.  Then I traced out the stencils onto the paper side of the Heat-N-Bond Lite paper.  I made 10 of each piece, enough to make 10 flowers.  I then cut the pieces out and ironed them (sticky side down) onto some material that I found at the thrift store for .50 cents each a pillowcase!  I cut out the traced and ironed on pieces out of the fabric.  I laid the pieces onto the curtain and ironed them into place.  Then I outlined the pieces in black to give the flower the stained glass look.  After the second flower I was on a roll!    

This is the flour sack towel I hand embroidered to complete the Iris Flower design of the kitchen.  LOVED the curves in the leaves!  The whole project turned out great-until when completed I realized that I altogether forget to complete a whole curtain! 

BACK to the sewing machine!

Good thing I had some practice!  

Happy Crafting!

Quilts in progress...

I have been working on some quilts for family.  I started each one so that I could get excited about it and once it's started it HAS to be finished!  

Started a Scooby-Doo quilt for my nephew.  Simple 4-patch with a solid patch.  Finished quilt will be 60X60.  Hard to find Scooby-Doo material, but I liked this one a lot!!!  I used my new 5 inch square Charm Accuquilt die cut.  I LOVE this cut.  It can be used for so many patterns.  

This quilt is for my baby girl.  She wanted a ladybug quilt.  I used my Hexagon and Triangle Accuquilt die cut.  The Hexagon die is so cool.  I am going to create ladybugs when adding the rows!  You will have to wait and see how it all works out!  She wanted different colored ladybugs as opposed to all red ladybugs.  This one will be about 60X60 as well.  I may go a little bigger but I will have to see how it builds as I piece the hexagons.  

This is going to be a Pooh Bear quilt for my other nephew.  I had a 32X45 panel that I used for the center.  I am going to piece 5 inch squares around the edge.  This quilt will be a 60X60 quilt as well.  

I will post after pictures of all the quilts.  Now that they are started I can get to working on them!  BUT not after attending the Denver National Quilt Festival!!  

http://www.quiltfest.com/activities.asp?id=35

I am so so excited!  I missed the Pueblo Sew and Stitch Festival this year so this will definitely make up for it!  Can't wait!  

Happy stitching!  

This and That...

 I have been working on some hand embroidery projects that are finished now.  This blanket is for a baby shower later in the month. I used just a straight blue color to tie into the color scheme of the blanket.  This is the cutest little boy set from Aunt Martha's Little Boy's Quilt #3910 Iron on Transfers.  

I found these owls on the internet and copied them to make a little owl edging on my pillowcase.  I used browns, pink, and a little blue.  This was fun because they each had their own personalities and expressions!  

This is one side of the pillowcase:

 This is the other side of the pillowcase:

This little owl is my favorite one of all! 

I am working on a new quilting program called Quilt-Pro 5.  It is a program especially made for MAC computers.   I looked at the EQ-7 program but it seemed to have some bugs that needed working out if used on a MAC windows VMware Fusion program.  I have been playing with the program but it is complicated!  I had to have the manual RIGHT next to me to figure it all out.  I did design a quilt/comforter for my mom's bed.  It is going to be 109X109!  I am using big squares to create the design with a hand embroidery pattern of flowers in the middle.  I hope to get cutting on this soon.  I like the program because it gives me all the material measurements, binding measurements and other information for finishing the quilt out.  I love that it tells me how much material I will need for a project!  

Still working on my flannel cup-cake rag blanket.  All I have to do is sew X's on each square then sew them together.  I guess it is so monotonous that I always put it aside for something more challenging.  Maybe I should slip in Top Gun and sew for a couple of hours!  :-)

Had some requests from family members for a couple of quilts and some other projects.  I also have had some requests for Cricut covers.  I am planning on doing them all in one day so that I can cut and sew using the pattern and get them checked off the ol' list!  

Summer is just around the corner!  We are planning on making it to the Denver National Quilt Festival at the end of this month.  I am so excited!  Then off to the Bolder Boulder to WOG (walking/jogging)!  Next is my baby boy's birthday, my baby girl's birthday and pre-school graduation!  Birthday parties, Chucky Cheese, swimming in Salida and The Lady Bug Shop!   YEAH!  

Happy crafting all!  :-)

New embroidery projects

I worked on a couple of patterns from a book by Aimee Ray.  http://www.dreamfollow.com/book.html  

I got the newest book called Doodle Stitching The Motif Collection.  The patterns are new and modern.  It comes with a CD that contains all the patterns in the book.  The patterns can be adjusted by size to accommodate any project.

Mermaid for blanket, stitched the edge with wave decorative stitches.

Wall hanging embroidered in hoop and kept there for hanging.

Red work using Aunt Martha's hot iron on transfers.  http://www.acmenotions.com/nanki.html

Our local Curves needed a wall hanging.  I used my Cricut to cut out the letters and then appliqued them onto the this beautiful material.  I free motion quilted around the lettering and then applied the binding using my machine.  

Lots of stitching going on here...  My mom asked me to count how many projects I had to do.  I counted eleven then I found three more that I am currently working on!  Happy stitching!  :-)