Long time no post!

Sooo busy..... here are a few quilty and not so quilty things I've been up to since my last post.


Made a quilt for Willow.


Really love how the quilting came out on this one!







Bubble bath on vacation. Nice!



Family reunion. Three of 4 sisters.

Had my fortune told in New Orleans! How goofy is this guy? Like my hat? Searched high and low for a hat to fit my big fat head. This one was 'perfect'!

Did some sewing with the girls.

Summer chalk art.


Got a booth at the antique mall! Check out The Flying Phoenix. www.theflyingphoenixartisans.com


Went to the lake.



Got a swingset! Lovely Assistant is breaking it in.


Customer quilt.

More later!

New hand work

Just about to finish appliqueing the last of my Sunbonnet Sue blocks, so I need something new to do by hand. A very long time ago I experimented with a tea leaf (orange peel?) block, so thought I'd get some of that ready to do. Here is the first block I made forever ago and some new pieces I cut out yesterday.


See the little squares? Another forever ago I found some neat stamps "By Kate". They are for stamping on fabric and then cutting out to piece. I bought these squares (1.5 " and .5 ") and also a hexagon.

They are really pretty fun! Not as fast as rotary cutting, but when you have a really irregularly shaped scrap piece it can be a pain to try and rotary cut.

The stamping is fun and I enjoy sitting and cutting with scissors sometimes.

See all the fun fabs I found in my scrapbox???

This is my favorite piece. Most of my scraps are teeny tiny. Still haven't decided how to use those up yet. One of these days I might be able to throw them away. Ha!!

"B" is for book!

Still on the book kick.  They are just too much fun!  Here's the latest one.  But first, since blogger won't let me move the pics around.....

My lovely assistant being very helpful again!  I love it when she helps like this.

"B" is for book.  A book all about things that start with 'b'.  Here's a challenge for you - go see how many 'b' fabrics you have in your stash.  This book started to be a 'b' is for bunny book.  Then I decided to add bears.  Then bugs.  Oh!  And butterflies!  And it just grew.  I discovered a ridiculous number of 'b' things in my stash and even in my scrap tub.  It was astonishing!  The book is finished and I keep going back and writing more 'b' things that I find in it!  Like, the 'b'ow on the 'b'ear!

The boots got stitched on wrong side out.  Ever had one of those days?  I just didn't feel like ripping and re-stitching and you can see them just fine, so wrong side out they stayed.

The boy on the right has a ball, but it got lost in the seam allowance.  He was tough to cut out.  Do you love the 'b'lue 'b'amboo?  Can you believe that?  I pulled that out of the scrap tub as I was building these.  What a surprise!  The boots were like that, too.  Surprise!  Boots!!  But really, blue bamboo?  Who woulda thunk that would be in my scrap tub??  Not me.

This is a 'b'allerina with a 'b'ouquet and 'b'londe 'b'angs.  I mean really... did somebody plan this???

I like the bigger size.  It does allow for bigger pics, like the ballerina.  It's harder to build, though.  Pieces on the edges/corners tended to be really big.  That's OK if they are focus pieces, but just for fillers they kind of overwhelm, or at least I was afraid they would.  I guess I need to piece a bunch of crumbs together to use in spots like that.

I may take a book break for a bit.  I think I'm getting ready to do a memory/siggy quilt real quick.

More later!

Another funky book

This is what I did last night instead of watching the debate. It's not that I'm uninterested in the debate, just that I know I'll be hearing/reading about it everywhere and all the time until bigger news comes along. I'm sure of who I will vote for, don't think anything said in the debate will change my mind. I'll refrain from saying who my vote is for and why so that this blog can remain all about quilting. Or I might say something stupid and then it would be here on the internet forever embarassing me. Sewing is much more fun anyway!

Sew, another book for my lovely assistant!


A fish.

Moo cow and chickie. It was tough to get a good pic of chickie. The flash kept making such a glare. This one is not so great, either, but it was the best I got. I was trying to get a picture with this sitting on a pillow in my lap.

A frog and a lamb.

Doggie and chicken.

And a jungle bird.

It's really fun making these little books. It's a very haphazard, grab it and stitch, it is how it is kinda thing. I like that! I have several thoughts/ ideas about this:

- I wanna make a bigger one
- more pics on the page
- maybe coordinate the fabs a bit?
- textures?
- trims?
- tags?

We'll see what time allows.

More books

Here are a few more books:

A Christmas Story book and


B is for bears. There are actually 2 of these. Think anyboby will buy them? We'll see. If not, they will be presents for my lovely assistant and the small people we know.

I have some cool black fabric with retro looking yellow owls on it. I want to make a pinafore with it and maybe a little matching purse? I also have lots more fun fabric for little books. Now for more time....


And here's a shot of my other lovely assistant modeling a pinafore. Note the littlest lovely assistant in the shot, too? We simply cannot function without her. In case you don't recognize that look it's, "I'm ready! Take the picture already, dad!"

New stuff!

I've been sewing. Haven't been doing laundry or dishes, but have gotten a few things stitched up. Check it out!


A cute little reversible pinafore with a kitty in the pocket for my lovely assistant. Also have one for sale in my Etsy shop.



And a couple of fabric books. Ten Commandments

and the Rainbow Zebra. These are also available in the shop.

More on the way!

Busy, busy, busy....

Life is busy! Lots going on. I have had some opportunities to sew, however. I've even taken some pics! I'm working really hard not to post it all at once, so today's pics are a little fabric book that I made for my lovely assistant.


Peekaboo lizard!


A bear and a piggie. Something I learned about making little fabric books - pick bigger focus fabrics. The bear and the piggie are kinda lost....


A kitty and a duck. The kitty is my favorite!



A puppy and a cardinal. Cardinal is a little small. I had to add him - I love cardinals!



And a bunny. I really don't like this bunny. Don't know why. I put him in because I needed another animal.

This was so fun to make! It's small - about 3 x 4 inches - but just right for little hands! It has no batting so was easy to stitch together. It's completely washable, too! Quiet for church, Ok to chew on, would be a cute gift - I'm making more!

I discovered I really don't have many novelty/conversation prints in my stash and this is akin to a crime! So, my new quest when it comes to stash building is novelty prints. It was all I could to not to run out to Hancock's today looking for some! Besides the fact that I am absolutely, totally and completely broke, that's not how I shop. I really like to 'find' fabric as opposed to shopping for it. I haunt estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores, and occasionally the really cheap bins of scraps at fabric stores. It's better for my budget, makes decision making easy (there are way too many fabrics out there to choose from! I need a limit.), and makes my stash very, very interesting.

More soon!

Guess what I did today!

Wrong! I sewed a dress. Yes, I did! While my lovely assistant took a nap. And I have pics to prove it. I drafted a pattern, cut it out, stitched it up, and little miss sleepy slept through the whole thing. It's reversible, too! No pics of the other side, sorry. Here's the lovely assistant (who just woke up) checking it out.




Nice and roomy for busy little people.


And the back.


It's not really a dress, it's a reversible pinafore. See how it criss-crosses in the back? I used this tut. No buttons, zippers, etc. I've been wanting to make some of these to put over onesies (or, just to wear by themselves!) all summer and am just now getting around to it. It doesn't go with the onesie she has on in the pic, but that's OK. This was just a try-on session. It does look good all alone - we modeled it for daddy when he came home. He thinks it needs pockets. I'll add that to the next one. And maybe something interesting like eyelet on the collar..... maybe some ricrac peeking out of the seams..... maybe I can make one out of an old quilt top..... hmmm.....

I managed to get this done in spite of all the usual catastrophes that plague any project of mine including:

getting stuck with pins (I hate pins..... but I didn't burn myself with the iron this time!)
having to hunt down matching thread (found some!)
thread breaking - but my bobbin didn't run out!
forgetting to add seam allowance to my pattern (yes, I really 'do' have a degree in home ec)
machine tension going all weird. Does this happen to everyone? Or just me? Doesn't matter which machine I use, what I'm doing, etc, etc. Maybe I just live in the weird tension zone? Anyway, I overcame!!!

I'm really, really proud of getting this done. I can never seem to get anything done! It feels really good to have accomplished this, start to finish.

Things that the perfection police will notice:

I was sewing and not cleaning house.
That topstitching is a little wonky...
Oh my giggles, is that basket FULL of lonely socks???

More tomorrow!