A cool mom I know ordered an apron from the shop.

She also requested a matching mini one for her little girl.

I am in love with how the mini turned out.

cj was to start a new OT program today, but the weather got in the way.

I was up and ready for the day so I sent the kids off to school and caught up on some things in the kitchen.

The spouse drank his way through another batch of cocoa mix, so I stirred up yet another batch.  Our milk was getting a little close to the edge so I made some rice pudding.

I have had a box of chocolate chex on the shelf since Christmas and finally mixed up some puppy chow.  I also bit the bullet yesterday and started cutting up the echino helicopters for cj's quilt.  I have been stitching on those today too.

When cj saw the first few block he announced they were "perfect!"

It seems my brother hasn't picked up his mail in a while.  Either that, or he did pick up his mail and doesn't like his Christmas present.  Of course, the third possibility is the postman decided he was getting a bit chilled with all the snow and decided to cozy up with it himself.  However having known my brother all my life, I'm going with the first option.

The front has Civil War battle scenes along with portraits of Lee and Grant and confederate and union money.  I based the pattern loosely (very loosely) on the idea of a flag, blue and white on the left red and white stripes on the right.

The border is a repeat of the Gettysburg address in Lincoln's handwriting.

The back has a bit of piecing with the battle scene panels in bands of blue and ivory stars and stripes.  It's channel quilted every inch or so and bound with a burgundy and khaki floral.

If it turns out it was the postman, I'm hoping the postman is as much of a history buff as my brother.

Lulu is in first grade and it seems they do a lot of fun work with different patterns.  She was playing around with blocks at home and came up with this.

We thought it would be a great pattern for a quilt.

I decided to go with Hunky Dory by Chez Moi for Moda.  Along with some solid ivory squares from a charm pack.

I love the way it turned out.

I did outline quilting to accentuate the blocks.

I'm especially pleased with the back.  I love those deep blues and bright pinks together.

It will be posted in shop by the end of the day.

A new collection of totes is now available in the shop.

Last year I made Christmas stockings for a couple of friends.  It turned out that their dogs were jealous, so this year they will have their very own stockings for Santa to fill.

They are made with scraps of wool that have been machine pieced in a crazy quilt fashion.  I used embroidery floss to hand stitch all the embellishments.  I think my favorite stitch is the herringbone stitch on Izzy's toe.

Put Me In The Zoo has always been one of my favorite books.

I loved the illustrations as a kid and still love them today.  Luckily, both the kids love the story so we read it on a fairly regular basis.

When I saw the polka dots fabrics in the freebird line by MoMo fabrics for Moda, my first thought was of those polka dots flying across the sky.

I couldn't resist making a quilt top with all those great big polka dots.

It's quilted with a horizontal stripes with a chocolate brown thread.  Turns out, it's going to go live at my mom's house.

Here's the back -

Our weather has been so beautiful the past couple of days.

We are doing our best to take full advantage of this.

I've also been putting a lot of time into this project.

These prints are so cute.  They are loaded with flowers and geometrics, there are even hats and shoes.

It's available now over at mybricole on etsy.

it's done

The moment I saw this fabric at my local shop I loved it.  I knew nothing about making a quilt except this was the fabric I wanted to use to make mine.  The majority of it is made using the Rouenneries line from French General for Moda.  The pattern is the Yellow Brick Road pattern from Atkinson.

It is machine pieced and hand quilted.

It is also extremely cozy.  I cannot believe I actually finished it before the snow started falling.

Here's the back.

happy November

lulu found some flannel that she loved so I have been making pajamas First there was pink leopard, then skiing monkeys, and now, last but not least birdies

It's a NewLook pattern (#6746)

cj found a great moose flannel along with a black and red buffalo check for some pants of his own

I loved these crazy prints the moment I saw them, especially the rooster...

I cut them into little bricks and pieced them into diagonals.  I think the repetition of the diagonals really emphasizes the cool graphics on the fabrics.

Here is what the back looks like

It's available now in my etsy shop.

Here's a full view of the spouse's new quilt.

It's made from the Happy Trails line by Benartex.  I took my cue for the design from the name and created lines from all different sized strips of fabric.  The quilted the center of the top with horizontals in various widths.  I quilted all the seams as well.

The back is also from the Happy Trails line - I used a strip each of pistols and barbed wire along with the orange plaid.

Here it is on it's first test drive.

When I saw the prompt for this week's The Sunday Creative was "connect" the first thing that came to mind was connecting pieces to make a quilt.  I planned a shot of rows of pieces that had just been stitched together.  I even cut them out last night so I could take the pictures today.  They are waiting in a stack by the sewing machine. Then I caught this -

It's the quilt I finished last night for the spouse.  He was taking it for a test spin.

pieced top - quilted layers - gift to spouse - wedding ring

When I saw the photo in the viewer, a big light bulb flashing *connect* went on above my head.

I made this bunting for lulu's fourth birthday.

Actually I made it around 10pm the night before her fourth birthday party.  I was in a hurry so I used fabric-tac glue instead of sewing it.

Last year it was blazing hot, so we celebrating inside.

It was quick and easy.

All I did was cut a length of twine to the length I needed and then cut triangles out of my stash fabric.  I used pinking shears too keep the fraying of the fabric to a minimum.  This year they were hanging outside for a couple of days through wind and rain so the edges have been softened.

I also trimmed the top corners off a bit so they wouldn't overlap and show from the front.  Then I glued them around the twine.

...and we will have a little picnic. I fell in love with the dessert fabric ("Kids at Play II" for Hancock Fabrics) the moment I saw it, but I had a difficult time choosing the right project for it.

I used a quilt as go technique to make it.  I hadn't heard of quilt as you go until a couple of months ago, when I stumbled upon Penny's blog Sewtakeahike, (Although I think I found a link to her on tumblr, so technically I tumbled upon her site.)  She was hosting a quilt as you go quilt along where she made the coolest quilt.  A couple of weeks after that, I caught and episode of Fons & Porter where they doing a slightly different quilt as you go method.  I cheated and mish mashed all the information together to make my verison.

First I pieced the blocks and then sandwiched each block with batting and a slightly larger square of backing fabric.

I quilted each square with lines at random angles using a variegated thread with shades of blue, yellow, and ivory.

After quilting, I trimmed and squared the blocks (and put them in a pretty stack)

Then I stitched the blocks into rows and the rows into a quilt, stitching the wrong sides together so the exposed seams are on the front.  This way you can cover them and all the extra stitching to attach them will be on the back.

I did a lot of back and forth over whether I should cover the seams with ribbon or fabric, but finally decided that matching the fabric to the binding was going to look the best.

Here's a shot of the back. (Make Life... by Sweetwater for Moda)

This is only my second quilt, but I have to say, I'm really liking this quilting thing.  I can also already see the downside.  So many amazing fabrics, so many cool ways to make quilts - if you aren't paying attention, you could turn around one day and buried under a tower of quilts.  For that reason, I'm thinking about putting this one up for sale in my etsy shop.  As of now, I'm undecided.

I'm also excited because I was able to finish it in time for The Bloggers' Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side.  What an amazing group of quilts and quilters - you should check it out.

ps.  I know the quilt is covered in strings, but I'm desperate to make several deadlines today so strings happened.

A gratuitous peony shot just because they are so lovely-

It's a birthday gift for a friend. The fabric is from the Rouenneries line by French General for Moda.  It's a linen/cotton blend and drapes beautifully.

I added a few patches and played a bit with decorative stitches.

Here's the part I'm most excited about.

The waist band was made using french seams.  That means all the exposed edges on the wrong side are enclosed and extra pretty.  (Thanks to this explanation on french seams from oliver + s.)

These are the last of the totes.

Now I can get back to the  picnic quilt

eleven tote bags complete

I put the kids to work for this one. They each designed and stitched a little something for my mom.