Swaps

Hello!  :)

Last week I told you I had joined a Valentine's apron swap. I made one for me and one for my partner. Gail received her apron, so now I can share it with you.

First here is the one I made for me!  :)

I love it!  :)  It was a new pattern for me and went together pretty quick.  :)

This is the one I made for Gail . . .

Here's a close-up of the details . . .

Don't you just love the kitties and pink hearts?!!!  And how about the pink mini pom-pom's on the pocket and of course the extra large rick rack! I hope she likes it as much as I do!  :)

I received my apron and goodies from Gail today. She sent me a two-sided apron, one side Valentine and the other for every day! How cool is that?!!! She also sent me some Valentine socks, cupcake liners & picks, and a set of heart cookie cutters. I'm a lucky girl! I love it all!  :)

Here's the Valentines side, full of hearts, and the goodies.  :)

Here's the reverse side . . .

I love it! Check out that awesome apron fabric!!! OMG!!! I love it!!!  :)  She also used the same heart fabric from the front and some black rick rack! Did I tell you I love it?!!!  :)  Thank you so much Gail! You rock!!!  :)

I have one more swap to share with you. Remember this Snowman block I made?

My partner Nettie received it!  :)  I received this one from her . . .

Isn't it adorable?!!! I love it! It's all appliqued. She did a wonderful job! Thank you Nettie!  :)

That's all the swaps for now. The only other swap I have lined up is making two heart blocks for this month's block swap. Not quite sure what I'm going to do yet. Can't wait to get started on them. I love hearts!  :)

Until next time . . .

Made Some Progress!

Hello!  :)

My friend Karen, from Sew Much 2 Luv has been having an "After Christmas Sew Along" all month. I wanted to participate from the beginning but I just couldn't get my rear in gear. Now that I'm moving along I'm participating this week. Today, Friday, is the last day. Better late than never . . . right?  ;)

I've made some progress on putting the Birdie's quilt top together. I sewed the four rows together with the sashing in between the blocks. I only got a picture of part of the first row though . . .

It's the January and February blocks so it's appropriate, right?!  :)  I'm hoping to get more done on this tomorrow. The only problem is that the hunky dude is off work every Friday, Saturday and Sunday (he works 4/10's). I love this schedule but sometimes it's hard to get sewing done. He seems to want to run errands and spend time with me on his days off . . . crazy, huh? Just kidding! I love it!  :)  I just wish I could fit some sewing time in there too. It's my fault though as I get lazy after we run errands and just want to sit, watch tv and play on the computer. I'm a total computer addict! There I admitted it!  ;)

Remember this pile I showed you the other day . . .

Did you guess what I was making with it? I turned it into this . . .

I'm very happy with how it turned out.  :)  It's for a Block of the Month Swap I've been participating in through Mary Jane's Farmgirl Connection. January's block was to be a snowman. I think I got it right!  :)  Hopefully my two partners aren't reading this. I will be getting their blocks in the mail to them real soon. I also made a couple extra ones for myself. I'm considering using this design for a surprise project later this year. I just have to decide exactly what I want to do. For now I'll keep my idea a secret. I'll let you in on it when I know all the details, okay?!  :)

Hope you have an awesome weekend!  :)

Until next time . . .

Snowman Mini Quilt GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!

Hello!  :)

The time has come! Did you have fun checking out all the awesome blogs and giveaways through the Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways . . .

And the Giveaway Day 2011?

I sure did! I already won something too! Check it out here.

Before I announce the winner of the Snowman Mini Quilt . . .

I want to thank all of you who stopped by, commented, and shared your favorite way to celebrate Christmas with me! I really enjoyed reading all your comments!  :)  There were 305 comments left! Wow! I feel so honored!  :) I also have 197 followers now! Many of you found me and followed me thanks to these giveaways! I welcome you all! I'm glad to have you here! I was hoping to reach 100 followers and I totally surpassed that! I'll be having a giveaway next month to celebrate reaching 100 followers . . . be sure to stop by and enter. AND if I reach 200 followers by the end of December I will celebrate by giving away two prizes in January! Only 3 more followers to go! :)

I know . . . I know . . . I know . . . You want to know who won this time! Okay . . . here it goes . . . with the help of the random number generator . . .

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:78Powered by RANDOM.ORG

(Note: When this post is in draft form the random number generator shows Min: 1, Max: 305. When it's posted it disappears. Sorry. I have no idea why it's doing this.)

Kathy H said... 78

We always read the night before Christmas on Christmas eve.

December 12, 2011 9:46 AM 

Kathy H is the winner of the Snowman Mini Quilt!!! Congratulations Kathy!!! I will be emailing you shortly. Please send me your address so I can get this quilt mailed out to you.  :)

Until next time . . .

Quilter’s Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways!!!

Hello & Welcome!  :)

Today's the day! Please help me celebrate Quilting Gallery's 4th Birthday Celebration!

The official blog hop starts Saturday morning, shortly after midnight, eastern time. There are more than 200 bloggers registered from 20 countries . . . with each having their own give-away! Awesome! It's going to be so much FUN!!!  :)  Go to the official Blog Hop Party page to check out the list of all the bloggers participating after midnight tonight!

I am so happy to be participating in this Blog Hop Party Give-Away and the Giveaway Day 2011!

What's the Giveaway Day 2011? It's a day where many bloggers will be posting pictures of the items they're giving away with a link to the giveaway post! How awesome is that?!!! The link to this Giveaway Day 2011 will not be active until Monday, December 12. Be sure to go there then to check out all the giveaways! I'm very thankful to be participating in both of these giveaway hops! I want to take a minute to thank both the hosts! I couldn't help but participate in both of them! I also want to Thank You so much for visiting me!  :)

I couldn't decide what I wanted to give away. Should I offer some fabric or a completed piece? Hmmmmm . . .  I'm sure a lot of people will be offering fabric so I decided to offer one of my favorite pieces I completed this year . . .

Would you like to win this Snowman Mini Quilt? It's warm and comforting to help you get through all those cold winter nights.  :)  Since it's a snowman you can keep it up through January, here in the states anyway. Here's a view of the backing fabric . . .

And a close-up of the stitchery . . .

This mini quilt is approximately 17" x 17". The center redwork is loving hand-stitched. It's machine quilted and the binding's sewn on by hand. I hope you would like to add this to your holiday collection.  :)

There are two chances to win!

First chance . . . Leave me a comment telling me if you're a follower, old or new!  :)
Second chance . . . Leave me a separate comment telling me your favorite way to celebrate the Christmas holiday.  :)

The give-away is open internationally. It will remain open until midnight, eastern time, Saturday, December 17th. I will choose a winner on Sunday, December 18th with help of the random number generator, and will email the winner and post it on my blog. If you are a no-reply blogger please post your email in your comment or you will be disqualified.

Good luck!  :)  Best wishes to you and yours this holiday season! Keep warm and keep safe! Thank you so much for visiting me and sharing in all my adventures!

Happy Holidays!  :)

Until next time . . .

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Hello!  :)

So Sorry I've been away. I was going to try to keep up with posting while I was getting ready for boutique but it just didn't happen. I did manage to get a lot of stuff done though. I'm actually quite amazed at how many things I finished in a week. This is going to be a long post . . . but hopefully one you'll enjoy!  :)  I'll start with the items that I had already started when I last posted.

Remember this . . .

It turned into this . . .

Isn't it adorable?!!! I'm really happy with the way it turned out!  :)  This runner was made by a pattern I got from Cleo And Me on Etsy. You should check out all her adorable patterns! They are really great patterns with easy to follow instructions. 

Here's the back of the runner . . . 

And a close-up on the fabric . . .

Isn't it adorable! I absolutely LOVE this fabric!!! It has glitter all over too. It's so festive! I got it at JoAnn's. I only had a little left so I had to go and get more to make more runners. I already made two runners and plan on making more. They only had a few yards left so of course I got all of them!  :)

Here's the finished Christmas Tree Mini Quilt. I wish the picture was better to show all the rich colors. I added red buttons since you last saw it. I was supposed to add some stringed lights too but I didn't think they looked good. Maybe it's because I used such rich deep fabrics. I made four of these . . .

Remember this stitchery . . .

It was the last stitchery in a set of seven for a banner. I had made two of each for two lap quilts. I actually made four of the snowman just because he was so cute!  :)  I planned on using the extra two for a couple of mini quilts. Here's the beginning of the mini quilts . . .

I loved the way it looked but it needed a border. I tried lots of different border fabrics and ended up with the same white polka dot that I used on the Christmas Tree Mini Quilts. It didn't distract from the other beautiful fabrics I used and I think it kind of looks like snow.  :)  I quilted it in the ditch and then added the light blue snowflake binding to finish it off. Here it is . . .

What do you think? It turned out pretty cute, huh?!!! I really like it! Here's the back . . .

I liked it so much that I made four of them. Yes I used the other two that I had planned on using for the lap quilt with the other stitcheries. I just couldn't help myself. I knew I wasn't going to have time to make the lap quilt for boutique. Then I got to looking at the other stitcheries and my stash of Christmas fabric . . . hummmm . . . 

I turned two of these . . . 

Into two of these . . .

Here's the back . . . 

And two of these . . .

Into two of these . . . 

Here's the back . . .

I stopped there. They were all made using the same design and quilted with the same in the ditch method. I wanted to keep it simple.  :)  I ended up with four Snowmen Mini Quilts, two Santa Mini Quilts, and two Christmas Tree Mini Quilts. I still have two each of 4 different stitcheries ready for the lap quilt I plan on making. I just have to stitch up 6 more stitcheries to replace the ones I used for the mini quilts. 

What else did I make for boutique? I made some crayon roll-ups. I used Angie from Summerfield Quilts, awesome Crayon Roll-Up Tutorial to make them. The tutorial is very easy to understand with lots of pictures. Thanks Angie for such a great tutorial!  :)  They were very simple and quick. I made 8 of them.

Here they are all rolled up . . . 

Here's the back of my favorite one . . . 

And the inside . . .

I had picked up the crayons during the back-to-school sales earlier this year just for this purpose. I even have more leftover. Guess I'll be making more in my future.  :)  

The night before I had to bring my things for boutique I had some extra time so I looked through my stash. I had some wine fabric and thought it would make a nice runner so I got busy putting it together. I didn't use any pattern. I basically made it up as I went along. I knew I wanted to keep it pretty simple. I also want to use some prairie points in it. I started with the wine fabric and then put some log cabin style strips around it. Then I put a border between the two blocks and at each end. I added the prairie points with the borders at the end. I was going to leave it there but it looked kind of skinny so I added the borders to the sides. 

Here it is . . . 

And the back . . . 

I didn't know whether I should turn both blocks the same way or not. I ended up facing them away from each other. I figured it would look great that way in the center of a table. What do you think? I kept the back and binding the same brown as the front to keep it simple. I wanted the focus to be on the wine fabric.

Here's a close up of one side of the runner . . .

And a closer view of the prairie points . . .

I kept the quilting simple by quilting next to the seams and around the prairie points. I couldn't believe how quickly the runner came together. I even had time to sew the binding to the back by hand. I was very happy with all I'd accomplished.

My boutique is in Quartz Hill, California, which is next to Lancaster, California. It's where I used to live before I moved to Corona a year and a half ago. I've been doing this boutique for the last 5 years and it's a really good one. If you are near there and want more information just ask. I went there Wednesday morning to bring my stuff and help set up. The boutique runs Thursday through Saturday. I will be there Saturday afternoon to work a shift and pick up my stuff when it's over. I hope I do well. The money I make will be used for Christmas presents. Wish me luck!  :)

Until Next Time . . .

Progress is good! :)

Hello!

How are you doing today? I'm doing pretty good.  :)  I've been making lots of progress! I love progress! I would love to share it with you!  :)

Here's what I was working on today . . .

Whatever could this be?  ;)  I'll let you stew on that for a few more days. I'll share more as I get further along. Sorry . . . I can't help myself.  ;)

I've gotten the last stitchery done for my Christmas Stitchery Mini Quilt. Actually I made 4 of them. I know I only made 2 of each of the others, but I really liked the snowman!  :)  I saw it and just knew I wanted to make another project (actually 2 of them) with just him!  :)

Isn't he cute?!!! I love snowmen!  :)

I've made more progress on my Christmas Tree Mini Quilts. I've got all 4 of them quilted. The quilting actually went pretty smooth. It's the first time I used different top and bottom thread colors. I was nervous but it worked. I didn't want to do too much quilting so I just outlined the tree levels and stitched on the red, right next to the white. Here's a close-up of the front quilted . . .

And a close-up of the back . . .

Here's the whole back, angled for a better view . . .

I couldn't really get a good picture of the quilting on the front. Oh well. Here's the whole front . . .

Did you notice I was able to get the binding on already too?! Tonight I'll be hand stitching down the last binding and then that part will be done. All that will be left will be the finishing details. Yes! There is more! I'm really liking how these are coming out!  :)  It's been really fun and didn't take too much fabric. The hardest part about the fabric was finding a variety of greens. Oh . . . and don't you just love the border and backing fabric? I love it! The reds are so deep and beautiful!  :)

Tomorrow will be the only 1 week left until boutique mark. Yes I'm behind . . . but I'm making good progress.  :)  It hasn't helped that my son's sick this week and I spent 3 hours at the doctors with him today. However now he's all stocked up on meds and should be getting better everyday. That's the important thing!  :)

Until next time . . .