I hope she doesn't mind...

but I'm posting these darling quilts Joleen made. They are for her sister-in-laws twin baby girls who will arrive any day now. The print is pink and purple lady bugs. Joleen pieced and quilted these herself! Way to go!

If you haven't posted your favorite quilting tip on the blog post below, you really should do it before next quilt guild meeting. Carolyn wasn't kidding when she said there would be fabulous prizes!

A few little things...

The Mickey bags were not, technically, sewing, but I thought they were fun. I just bought the two for a dollar reusable bags from Dollar Tree. I covered up the small logo on the bottom corner of the bag with permanent black marker- easy peasy. Then I traced the Mickey shape on fusible craft bond (the super thick, non-sew type) and ironed on the fabric. (Important note: these bags are not made of fabric... if you don't cover the WHOLE thing with a pressing cloth your iron may end up covered with a thick gooey tar-like substance. Second important note: Faultless Hot Iron cleaner can remove thick gooey tar-like substances, as well as interfacing stuck directly to the iron.) Then I just ironed a strip of ribbon that matched the fabric to the top. Finally, I took some permanent ink and stamped my kids initials on the bags and outlined the letters with glitter glue. It was the perfect thing to fill with treats, coloring books, crayons, and MP3 players for our drive to Disneyland, and they cost under a dollar each to make.

This pink, green and brown quilt has gone to live with my cousin's new baby girl. I hope she likes it, because I really did. In fact, I kind of wanted to keep it. It is all flannel, and is backed with pink fuzzy minky and is SOOO soft. Shanda quilted it with darling little loops and flowers.


This sailboat quilt is for my other cousin's new baby boy. I pieced the back and the front. It took me a long time to draw a pattern for it that I liked, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

As far as I know, I only have two more cousins expecting, as well as one niece or nephew on the way, so I'll be done with baby sewing before I know it!

Cedar Chest Quilter's Winter Festival

Last weekend I headed down to Cedar to the Cedar Chest quilter's winter retreat. My Aunt and I went to the trunk show by Blanch Young. Blanch is 90 years old and showed some fantastic quilts. I loved her amazing use of color and the way that she used big prints on the back of her quilts. Here are a few pictures from her trunk show. My favorite saying from her trunk show was "Some mistakes I make, make the best quilts!"








My Aunt Karla and I took an all day class from Blanch's daughter Lynette Bingham. We made a baby trip around the world quilt that was called Twice as nice. This actually ended up making two quilts in reverse order. Her are the tops of the first quilt that Karla and I finished. Lynette has a fabric shop in Hurricane Utah called Main Street Quilt Cottage. I will add her link on the side. This retreat was really fun and we just might have to make this a yearly tradition!
Karla's Quilt

Carolyn's Quilt

(Cue crickets chirping....)

Okay, I'll quit being lazy and post some stuff....

Shanda and I made a baby quilt for a girl in our ward. Don't look too closely, however, as we apparently sew very different 1/4 inch seams (sometimes even different from ourselves....?!?) Overall, though, it turned out soft and cute, and Shanda's quilting makes it look kind of fabulous.
( I should apologize in advance that every quilt picture I ever post will have feet sticking out underneath...)

I finished my coin quilt that I made out of a charm pack (Sweet by Moda.) I really like it. I used Kona cotton for the off-white, and I really like it. I'll be using it again.

And the back...




And I put together a kit (I know, gasps of shock...) But really this one was pre-cut and so easy. It didn't even take an hour (unless you count the time used sewing ricrac on, which is a little challenging for me!)
Shanda practiced her daisy quilting on it, and I wish it showed up better, because it is darn cute. The back is polka dot minkee- you can sort of see the cute daisy quilting on this picture if you look very closely....

And finally, we decided to make new school bags for my girls again (since the ones they are using are nearly three months old, and therefore, ancient...) We did messenger bags this time using rag squares. They chose their own fabric, and I think they turned out pretty cute.
Miss M. was all about the bright colors. Hers is made of cotton quilt fabric.
Miss R. chose pastel flannels for her bag. It is very soft.

Okay, somebody else show me what you've been doing! I'm ready for inspiration!
Melissa

A Few Projects

I have been really slow at posting some of the things that I have been working on. This is really late but I made these skirts for my girls for Easter. The first three are a two tier skirt from a pattern that I found on line and the smallest one I made up from the scraps.

One of my friends wanted me to make some aprons for her mother and mother-in-law for mother's day. I actually made her three different aprons but could only find pictures of two of them.


After making the aprons for her I decided I wanted one for myself and just finished mine a couple of weeks ago.

So I didn't make this last apron, my sister-in-law made this one, but I loved how she added the hot-pink rickrack

Hello.... anybody out there?

So since NOBODY else seems to be posting, I thought I'd at least put pictures of my last few projects. Most of you guys have seen them, but that's okay, I suppose. The bag above was a gift for one of my daughter's friends on her birthday. It reverses to the picture below...
If I am going to be totally honest, I kind of wanted to keep it! I like the bright green.

The next two bags are my girls' school bags. They are reversible, too, but for some reason, I forgot to take pictures of the other side. Oh, well.

This is the baby quilt Shanda finally convinced me to finish. And that Shanda quilted. And that she did the hand stitching on the binding on because I am a crybaby and I hate doing that part. It now belongs to my cute little newborn nephew.
Do you like my husbands shoes peeking out under the quilt? If anyone has advice on how to take a picture of a quilt without shoes or tops of heads showing up, let me know!

Blue and yellow version two...

I just finished a second tiny turning twenty. This one was for my friend Jessica's baby. Instead of doing the quilt-as-you-go sashing this time, and because I'm not very good at it, I decided to do it the regular way and add borders instead. Shanda quilted it on her longarm-and did the binding. It turned out very soft and sweet, I think! Now, I'm ready for someone to have a girl. I have two more boy babies coming (not personally, mind you, but in my family,) and I have fabric purchased for their projects. But I'm kind of in the mood for pink!

What Kathy has been doing

The tractor quilt. I have it all pieced together. I just need to put borders on and then bind it. This will go on Mikey's bed when he gets a big boy bed. I have to stop with this quilt for now, because I have decided to make my sister-in-law and my sister a baby blanket and one is due at the end of July, the other in September. So I have to get busy on those. I will post progress when I get started.

Here is Lanie's quilt, I made her awhile ago. We have it on her bed. Hopefully you can see the wall to match. The pillow is my Great grandmother's. I have an orange bed skirt to match.

What Shanda's been up to!

So it's been a long time since I've got together with friends to quilt. Our lives are just a mess as school comes to a close. Carolyn wanted me to post some of my pictures of what I've been doing. The first picture is a block that we made in block of the month. It's a flying geese pinwheel pattern. I am going to put it together with the green, as soon as I can find some more. The other picture is a triple treat petite. I happen to LOVE this pattern. I borrowed Melissa's shape cut ruler and cut it out in like 10 minutes flat! It was fun. Anyway, I have another couple of projects started. I will take pictures of them and post again soon! I promise.

Aprons

I found this fabric on the 50% off table at Mom's and couldn't resist it. I thought it would make some cute aprons for 6 little girl cousins. So, here are the girls in their aprons learning how to make some Easter Rice Crispie Treats with their Granny.

The experiment...

So Carolyn, Sherida and I took the Crazy Quilt class at Snow Goose. It was really fun, and we learned this cool quilt as you go thing where you use decorative stitches on your machine to quilt each block separately and then sash them together. I immediately wanted to try a baby quilt. So I bought a new sewing machine with lots of cute stitches (nothing fancy, mind you- I just needed the stitches!) and set to work on a baby quilt for my friend. Along the way, I learned that I don't like quilting as I go. You can't pull the blocks around and make them line up like you can with just one layer of fabric, so all my sashings don't line up at all. It's okay for this, since the project was all kinds of crazy patterns anyway (and my friend who is receiving it is the nicest person I know and will love it no matter what.) But if I was doing something fussy that I wanted to look really perfect, I would definitely not try this.

I debated including this picture, since it really shows off how crooked by sashings are, but I think it is still kind of cute, and you can see how it would work if someone smarter than me was doing it.

Oh, well. At least it is a project checked off my to-do list. And it gave me a good excuse to buy a new sewing machine. Now all I have left to do today is finish my snowball exchange blocks (don't worry- they'll be straighter that the baby quilt!), make my block of the month block, work on a UFO, tend a sick baby, and maybe have surgery or break my leg so Shanda will make me a quilt.

Gigi's girl for Chelsea!

Does this look familiar? I don't know why I am so incapable of an original idea. I guess that Lisa's designs are so cute that I just have to copy them. This is actually one of two that I am making in this pattern. This is the baby of the original. I made it for my niece who had surgery. The day that I sewed the border on this, my other niece, Mckenzie, broke her leg, so now I am going to have to make another!

First Attempt

Thanks for the invite, Carolyn. I am not much of a sew mama, but here is a picture of my first attempt at a turning twenty! I LOVE this fabric!