Quilting Happy Dance

My Nephew is turning 1 year old next week but his party is this Saturday. I was able to finish his quilt just in time!



This is "Beetle Boy." I think I mentioned that was going to use red fabric for the binding but I decided on an orange instead. I just couldn't find the right red but I really like how the orange looks.



I have slowly working on Mill Hill's Hummingbird when I get a few moments to stitch. I was really wanting to get more done but I had to put it on my Wipocalypse list. I am determined that I will finish it next year. I'm stitching it for my mom. I seem to stitch alot of things for her but she is one of the few people that I know that appreciates stitched gifts. I hate to go to all that trouble for someone only to find out they don't really care about it.

What I've Been Doing

Ok, well I had signed up to do the IHSW or International Hermitr & Stitch Weekend this past weekend. I didn't cross stitch but I did stitch together a quilt top for my nephew. Does that count? I don't know.

Anyway, this is the quilt I'm making. I bought the kit because these fabrics are just so cute! Here's the link to a free download of Beetle Boy.


So here's mine. I still have to stitch the beetle's legs. Then I have to layer, quilt, and bind it. I decided I wanted to do a red binding since I have to go buy fabric for the backing anyway. The kit has you use the same fabric as the outer border and I tend to like the binding to stand out a little.

Goals For The New Year

I have several things that I *need* to accomplish this year. Most if not all are quilt projects.

1. Finish Nathan's quilt (Seriously, why am I having so much trouble with it?)
2. Machine quilt Sis's Star Wars Quilt
3. Machine quilt Sis's first scrappy quilt
4. Make Froggy Quilt for Atticus
5. Machine quilt my scrappy quilt

I have a few more quilt projects that I could list but I think I'll be lucky if I can complete just half of these. I'm going to try though. :)

A Quilt Finish!!

I have finally finished Emily's quilt! It's only a few months late. *sheepish grin* Now I need to work on Nathan's quilt. I have to rip out some mistakes and then re-quilt it. Hopefully that won't be as hard as I'm thinking it will be.

Ornament Finish

After all that has been happening here lately, I really *needed* to get back to stitching. Stitching helps take away the stresses of the day. However, I found myself not wanting to work on any of my WiPs. I even tried to start something new to no avail. I finally pulled out this ornament kit and got to work. It's from Needlemagic and titled "Lollipop" in case you are wondering. I can't even tell you how long I have had the kit stored away for a rainy day. I'm hoping that with the Stitching Olympics on the Wagon BB that I can get back into the swing of things. I also have my cousin's quilts to finish. I just haven't been able to make myself look at the quilts much less work on them. I'm just about finished with one so it's not as bad as it sounds.

So here's hoping that some more Happy Dance photos will start appearing here soon!

Take A Deep Breath!

Has everyone survived the Christmas holidays? It was pretty hectic here but after it was all over with, I realized that things went rather well. We celebrated Baby's First Christmas with Lucy, my brand new niece. Have you ever seen a house full of people fighting over who gets to change a poopy diaper? lol Luckily she filled several diapers and just about everyone got a turn changing her. I have to say that I am super impressed by my brother-in-law and his daddy skills. I am also proud of my sister who always seemed short of patience while we were growing up but she has all the patience in the world for little Lucy.

I had intended to make quilts for my two cousins but that didn't work out too well. I have Emily's quilt mostly done. I still have to hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt. Nathan's quilt however, is almost a disaster. I made a few mistakes and I am now ripping out the machine quilting stitches from just about half the quilt. It's very frustrating but fixable. I felt terrible that I couldn't finish his before Christmas and I felt that I couldn't give Emily's to her until his was done. So of course, I went and bought a few presents for them to open on Christmas.


One of the puppies has wiggled his way into my heart. I'm keeping the one Nathan named Peter. We've been calling him Peter Panda. The kids have been singing the Peter Panda Dance song to him. If you have seen The Pacifier with Vin Diesel, then you know what I'm talking about. Emily loves that movie! He is already getting spoiled. He whines if I don't let him sleep in my bed.




My Mom is supposed to make a quilt from the Baby Genius fabric line for Lucy. I promised to help her make it since she has never machine quilted before. Lucy's room needed something to hang on the wall so I mimicked a few pieces from the fabric on canvases.

Where Has The Time Gone?

Wow! It's been a while since I have updated my blog. Mostly because I haven't been working on anything lately. Until now that is. I hate it when I get so busy that I don't have time to make something. Stitching, sewing, painting, ect.. are the ways that I relieve stress and when I'm the busiest, that's exactly when I need to relieve stress! So here's what I've been up to.

Here is the quilt that I am making for my cousin Nathan. I have finished the quilt top!



I pretty much designed it myself, not that the design is real complicated. I wanted to leave the army, navy, air force, ect, fabrics in wide strips so that he could see all the details of the fabrics. It ended up a little bit longer than I expected but that should work out just fine since my cousin is super tall and still growing.

I added these cute stars in the corners to give it interest. I am quite pleased with how it all turned out and I'm sure he's going to love it.

Now I have to machine quilt this one and Emily's quilt (the one with the butterflies) before Christmas. If I have extra time, I may make a few pillowcases to match both quilts.

Quilt Top Finish

I have finished my future niece's quilt top. I purchased everything in a kit but as you will see, I have added my own interpretation to it. I love these colors! Very bright!

This is what theirs looks like.


And here is mine. I moved the blue squares up just a little.


And I added a small border. I just love stripey borders!


This is my first time to do mitered corners! I am so proud of how they turned out! It took a little while to figure out what I was doing but then it was super easy.

Progress

Isn't that sweet? The puppies are starting to open thier eyes now so it won't be long before they are running all over the place looking for things to get into. I will get some photos of them soon.


This is my progress on a baby sampler for my coming soon niece. It's Jungle Baby designed by Diane Arthurs. Oh, of course, I am changing some of the colors. Most of you know by now that I can't resist changing something on just about everything I make. ;-)

I have made decent progress on a baby quilt as well. I don't have the backing fabric yet so there's another shopping trip I need to make. Photos coming as soon as I finish the quilt top which will be soon.

Emily's Quilt Top

I finished the top for Emily's quilt!! I added a border to add a little extra to the sides and because she wanted more "red" in the quilt. Next, I have to finished Nathan's quilt top and then I will have the quilting parts left. I have the backing fabrics so I have no excuse not to get these finished in time. Another goal done!

Oops! Edited to add: The pattern for this quilt came from McCall's Quick Quilts, September 2008 issue. The quilt was called "Berry Patch" but since I used butterflies instead of stawberry fabric, I'll call mine "Butterfly Field".

Old and New Goals

My goals for August were....
Cross Stitch Goals
1. Finish 1 block on my Open RR piece
2. Finish Earth Goddess from the 3 Ladies RR (Done)
3. Spend at least 7 days working on "Deck the Stalls" (Done)

Quilting Goals
1. Finish assembling the blocks for Emily's quilt (Done)
2. Locate backing fabric for Sis's Star Wars quilt ( Done )
3. Purchase backing fabric for Sis's scrappy quilt

I got 4 out of 6 done. I'm happy with that. :)

My goals for September are....
Cross Stitch Goals
1. Spend at least 7 days working on "Deck the Stalls"
2. Finish 1 block on Open RR piece
3. Choose and start on a baby birth record for my niece or nephew coming soon. (Hopefully we will find out whether it's a boy or girl soon)

Quilting Goals
1. Piece Emily quilt top
2. Piece Nathan's quilt top
3. Get backing for 3 quilts
4. Choose a quilt pattern for new niece or nephew

Goals and a Progress Pic

This is all I got done on Deck the Stalls. I've been trying to work on it off and on all of this month. I get bored of this one due to the fact that it's all brown. I mean, all brown. I would feel the same way if it were all purple or all green. I need variety in the colors to hold my interest. I do like this design, it's rather beautiful but it's hard for me to stitch. But it does need to get finished so I'm going to have to make myself work on it each month.

And that brings me to this. I have decided to start setting some crafting goals for myself. I have to complete at least 5 quilts before Christmas and I have several cross stitch projects that I need to get done (such as Deck the Stalls above). Two of the quilts are for my little cousins, two are quilts that my Sis has pieced together but now needs me to put together and quilt, and I need to make a baby quilt for my Sis who is expecting a little one come Jan/Feb. I would like to stitch a baby birth record but I can't really start that till we know if the baby is going to a boy or girl. I would also like to get my cousin's stocking stitched so that I can then make one for the baby. Whew! That's alot of work! So, tonight, I'll have to sit down and think of my goals for August.

My Latest Projects

Here is my progress on Little Snap Dragon. I didn't get quite as much done on it as I would have liked but it's still progress. I've been in a stitching slump here lately.



On the bright side however, I have been in the quilting mood. This is the startings of a quilt for my little cousin. I think I have 9 out of 35 blocks completed. I also have to finish her brother's quilt.

See? I have been working on it! With camping trips, moving furniture, the Holidays, and everything else, I'm surprised I've gotten this much done! This is my latest progress on my hardanger piece from Andrea's SAL.


Here is my new room with my bed in it. No, I didn't make the quilt. I am working on one for my bed though. Of course, I have to finish one quilt for each of my two cousins and 3 quilts for my Sis. Actually, Two of the quilts for my Sis are hers that she pieced but she wants me to do the top quilting and binding for her. I can't wait to start hanging things back up on the wall!


As promised, here are some pics of my collectibles on my new shelves. I never realized that I had so many stuffed animals!

Star Quilt Blocks

I finished all four corner blocks! Now i need to get out my measuring tape and do some adding to figure out the rest of the quilt. My cousin is going to love it!

More Progress

Here's my latest progress pic. I am so hoping to get this finished by at least the middle of September.


I am planning on making 4 of these so I'll have 1 in each corner for the quilt I'm making for my cousin. I am really pleased with the way this block turned out! One down, three more to go.

My Weekend Projects

This is a quilt I'm working on for my cousin. It has the Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Army on it. He loves watching fighter planes and old war movies on tv so I knew he would love it. It's not done yet but this is what it looks like so far.


And of course I had to make a pillowcase for his Princess sister. I'm going to make her a quilt as well but it's going to have butterflies on it.


And here is Silver Lining's 25th Anniversary. I'm almost done with the large rose. Hmm...Can I get it finished before October? I hope so. I also will need time to get it framed.