Deck The Halls

 

Working on a little stocking for my sweet little girl :)

So far we have fleece lining, satin cover, and felt with embroidery to decorate. 

But I think it needs more sparkle!

UPDATE:

All finished! And please - remind me to never embroider with metallic floss ever ever again.

Pirates ... Yarrrrr!!

Last week in a nearby city we attended a Pirate Festival with a few friends.

Yup, a Pirate Festival!
So guess who whipped up an eleventh hour costume for her tiny terror of the seas?

Summer

It looks like blog-land is hit hard by summertime -- and that it is not just me :)

Between visiting family, swimming, boating, swimming, BBQing, swimming, buying fabric, and swimming ---  it has been pretty busy! I'm looking forward to hiding in my air-conditioned basement a.k.a sewing room and getting some quilting done this week.

Homemade Forts Are Great Fun

Last night I finished the last stretch of quilting on the border pieces of my Amish roses --- all 20 feet of feather and cable twist quilting done! Which left many many more feet of hand stitching the backing pieces together. Ick.

But with the end in sight I have been diligently stitching away, and I have gradually come to nickname the quilt "Frankenstein" -- partially because that is what my stitches remind me of, and partially because this quilt is for a friend named Shelley (the story of Frankenstein of course was written by Mary Shelley). My stitches have improved since I draped the quilt up on my quilting frame. But they got a little wobbly when my inspectors showed up and set me to giggling ...

Yep, that is my daughter using my draped quilt as a fort. While wearing a folded FQ on her head as a hat. Playing with some "My Little Ponies" and my other Quilt Inspector.

It didn't help my progress at all but it sure was funny!

Poor neglected blog!

I have this bad (?) habit of not wanting to make a post unless I can liberally scatter pictures along with my words. It just doesn't seem right to make a post without pictures!!

Lately I have been working on Deer Quilt #2 so pictures of that would be a little redundant. It is nearly finished except for the feather quilting in the border -- which will have to wait because I ran out of rusty-brown thread. Boo!

This has been a great week for 'happy mail' in our mailbox. By this I mean things that are NOT bills or junk mail --- on Monday I got the hefty package of fabric I ordered online to begin another project (details coming soon!), and Tuesday my little girl got a present from her Auntie.

We were all pretty tickled that she posed to let me take a picture for her Auntie -- usually she likes to giggle and run away from the camera so we have to 'catch' her!

And sometime before the weekend I should get another delivery of yardage to play with, and I am very excited! In both purchases I have made I have been very cautious and greatly overestimated what I will need ... so as a bonus I have lots of extra pretty cotton to play with!

Now if only I could grit my teeth and get another 2 or 3 quilts basted, then I would really be able to get down to business. But why procrastinate? I can do that tomorrow ..

Need to make up for lost time

I should have started posting my quilting projects months ago! Then I could have a lovely little blog / quilting diary like the thousands and thousands it seems already exist. But it would be mine, my own, my preciousssssss...

Like this sweet little child, for example. Mine mine mine all mine! She is sticking her tongue out at me, but I love her to pieces just the same. And she will be 2 years old tomorrow --- I just can't believe it! Oh, the terrible twos ... what shall I do?! Probably bribe her with "pretties" like the new quilt I finished last week.

Although I made several quilt tops while she was still hanging out in my tummy, this was the first project I made especially for her (AND managed to give to her without her Daddy swiping it for his own). I had a few yards of this Cranston VIP print laying around and figured now was a good time to introduce her to the bright and cheerful world of butterflies.

So I ironed, folded, snipped & 1/4 inch seamed away and this is what emerged from the cocoon of my sewing corner. To my torment I kept the quilting very simple: I outlined the butterflies in white thread. I splurged and attached the double fold binding with a heirloom stitch of pretty little leaves, and also played around with my first quilt labels in the shape of little envelopes. I loved Pirate's nifty SWAK (sealed with a kiss) based instructions, but I was thinking something much smaller. So I started with a backing & lining sandwich 6 1/2 by 4 inches, added a ribbon stitched to the middle of the backing, and got a wee business card sized envelope to stitch to the back of the butterfly quilt.