Thursday, December 30, 2010

Charli's Dance Bag

Jon's best friend Jimmy suggested that I make his 2 1/2 year old Daughter Charli a dance bag for Christmas!! I decided to make her a tutu dance bag and it turned out super cute!!  Here are some photos of the finished product!!  I hope she likes it!


Here is Jimmy, Charli, and Jon!  Isn't she the cutest thing??

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas Quilts

I made a total of 4 quilts for Christmas presents this year ( I know, I know I'm a crazy person!) but they turned out really cute, even if I was finishing hand sewing on binding for the last quilt in the car on the way to church on Christmas Eve :) Here are photos of all the quilts!
 
Quilt #1 was for my Daddy!!  Back story with this my Dad is retired and now helps my Mom run the quilt shop! With that said, my sister's name is Laurel and this particular line of Moda fabric is named Laurel; he loved this fabric line and pretty much hoarded the entire collection (and I believe my mom had close to every bolt in the store). Not only does he have yardage but he also has multiple charm packs and jelly rolls!  He has not made anything with this fabric because he just wants to keep it in his stash :)  SOOOOO my mom and I sneakily went into his precious Laurel stash and I made an entire lap quilt for him!! He had no idea that we even took any fabric (that's how much he has).  Needless to say he was really excited when he opened up his Laurel quilt on Christmas!!! Oh yeah, and he wasn't upset that we took fabric from his stash :) I love you Daddy, you make me laugh....always have!!!

Dad opening his quilt on Christmas day!!   
Here is a photo of the quilt top before it was quilted.

Quilt #2 was a quilt for my sister-in-law Erica!!  Erica turned 13 this July and decided that she needed to redo her bedroom!! SOOOO I of course said she needed a new quilt!! I took Erica to the quilt shop and she picked out all the fabric I used for the blocks in the center.  This quilt turned out huge because I wanted it to fit on her full sized bed with plenty of room on the sides so she  wouldn't need a bed skirt.  I love how fun this quilt turned out!!!  Thanks for the inspiration Erica, love you!!
Pattern: String quilt
Here is a photo to show how big this quilt really is, my dad on the left is 6'3"!!!


Quilt #3 was a quilt for my nephews Xavier and Jordan.  Their favorite book is Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See!  I found this Brown Bear fabric back in September and IMMEDIATELY knew that I wanted to make them a quilt for Christmas!!  I love how bright this turned out!!  Right after they opened it, Jordan the 1 1/2 year old, rolled and rubbed is face on it, ran and got a book and sat in his mommy's lap to read a story!! Then the next day, Xavier decided to play a Twister type game with it!!! Awh, how I love those boys!!! They make quilting even more fun!! Thanks for always being my guinea pigs to test out my new quilt ideas boys! :)
the front with all the characters
pattern: I just made up
and the back, just because I enjoy seeing how other people back their quilts!!

Quilt #4 took the longest!  This quilt was for Jon's Grandma Norma who recently had to move to a nursing home because Grandpa Ruben went to live with our Lord in Heaven!!  My husband Jon on the way down to the farm for Grandpa's funeral thought of making a quilt or something with Grandpa's shirts and I thought what a great idea!!  So we gathered a bunch of his shirts and I made a quilt for Grandma's bed at the nursing home!! Grandma has made MANY MANY quilts for everyone so we thought it would be nice to make her a special quilt!    All of the blocks in the center are made from Grandpa's shirts!! It was so awesome when she saw it, she totally knew they were his shirts!!  It was fun at Christmas as a family looking at the quilt and remembering who gave Grandpa what shirts and when he wore what!!  Mueller Family I love ya'll and it was so great seeing ya'll on the farm on Christmas!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

2010 Finishes Quilt Edition

My New Years Resolution last year was to make one quilt each month to have a total of 12 quilts by the end of 2010 and I DID IT!! I actually made way more than 12; I made close to 20 quilts this year and that makes me super excited!!!  There is one quilt photo that I didn't add because it's my next Moda Bake Shop project!    I think I ended up making 3 of just my Ruffle Quilt!  Some of these quilts I haven't shared with ya'll yet because they were Christmas presents and I wanted them to be secret!  Here are some photos of my 2010 quilts!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas

I just wanted to wish everyone a very blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
Santa was very good to me this year!!!  I got 16 yards and 3 charm packs of AMAZING Tula Pink and Amy Butler fabrics!!!! YEAH I am soooooooo excited and can't wait to come up with something to make with all of these gorgeous fabrics!! The top row is Tula Pink Parisville and the bottom row is Amy Butler Soul Blossoms and 2 charm packs of Tula Pink Flutterby (my all time favorite fabric line that is really hard to find and out of print)!!! Thank you to everyone who gave me fabric for Christmas; it totally made my day! Love ya'll!! 

Monday, December 20, 2010

Swapping is FUN!!

Ok, so I've been sewing like crazy to finish stuff up for Christmas....photos will be posted soon of all the goodies I've been making.  But for now I wanted to share all the fun swapping I've been doing.

First up, I did my first ever Modern Swappers this year and it was SOOOO much fun. I've already posted photos of what I sent to my partner...but here is what I got today!! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE everything! My partner totally got me :) Thanks Leah, I don't know if you have a blog....so if you do email me your site so I can link you!


She wrapped all my goodies so pretty AND they match my rug!!

 Fabric...the one in the middle I've been wanting for a long time!! I collect fabric with hexagons on it so I am really excited about it!  PLUS, you can't go wrong with Heather Bailey and New Anna Maria!! YEAH!
 Super cute hot pad and fun thread to match!
 A hexagon ruler and fun scissors!!
 The cutest pillow EVER...I still can't believe it's all mine!!
 The back of the pillow
A Flutterby tissue holder

Second up, At the last STLMQG meeting we did a brown bag swap. The rules were you put a half yard of fabric in a bag with your name and then you pick someone else's bag and you can add another half yard of fabric to make something special for your partner!! So, the lovely and talented Cara of Me a Mom? got my bad and I got hers!!  Be sure you check out her awesome blog!
This is what Cara made for me....an awesome Gathered Clutch!! Cara, I LOVE it and already have it loaded with fun stuff in my HUGE purse/bag :)  Thank you soooo much!!




 This is what I made for Cara!  She is a stay at home mom to three adorable little girls so I made her a mama whale with three babies :)  Thanks for letting me use your photos!!
Whale mini quilt from Jamie

Whale family mini-quilt from Jamie

I thought I'd share a common thread of me sewing....which is my little girl Izzy.  She likes to be involved with EVERYTHING I'm working on and thought I'd share these cute photos with you!


Thank you so much to all of my swap partners...ya'll are awesome and "SEW" inspiring!!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Grady

I just wanted to post this adorable photo of our new nephew Grady on the quilt that I made for him!! I just love this little guy and can't wait to see him again at Christmas!!  Thanks to my amazing sister-in-law Rachel for the awesome photo!!  If you live in the St. Louis area....check her out!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas.....deedle dee dee

Well it's snowing here today so it made me want to share a Christmas quilt with ya'll!  It's my Awesome Quilt!  I just love it with Christmas fabric!!  Tutorial available HERE!

This is the cute fabric I used for the back!! Love the animals :)

Monday, December 6, 2010

Modern Swappers

I have been SUPER BUSY sewing for Christmas (I'm doing a 95% homemade Christmas this year....geez).  While I can't post any photos of what I'm working on due to my family checking my blog and I don't want them to see anything until Christmas....I can post some photos for my Modern Swappers partner!!
First, let me tell you what Modern Swappers is, because you'll totally wanna join in the next one!  Modern Swappers is a group on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/modernswappers/) where we swap 1 1/2 yds of fabric, a handmade item, and something for your partners sewing area.  You get a secret partner (which makes it even more fun) and during the few months of "create time" we answer questions about our likes and dislikes so we can make something our partner will like!! I just sent my package off and I'm waiting for my partner to get it (I really hope she likes it)  I'll post her blog link after she gets it!  Here is what I sent...
A cute tree wall hanging with a little birdie.

 Close up of the birdie.
 Little birdie pincushion for my partner's sewing room!  Pattern available here

All of the goodies my partner is getting!