it's a little tricky ...

I've been waiting so long for this Dan Stiles fabric, and finally got it put together in a little baby quilt. However, it's really hard to baste it with safety pins ... ... when my stomach looks like this ...

... only five weeks to go!

spit up in style

Our little one that is coming is going to spit up in style. His mommy just can't stop sewing. My latest project has been burp cloths - so many cute fabrics in my stash, and so little time to turn them into quilts. Guess these will have to do!

sulky blendables - note to self

Note to self: I love the colors in the Sulky Blendables thread, but am not having fun stippling with it. I now remember this from using it before - the thread breaks every 12" or so, even with setting the tension right and using a top stitch needle. Very frustrating and to me: Do Not Buy This Thread Again! Use King Tut instead!

eat. play. sleep. repeat.

I found the tutorial for this baby quilt here, and just can't seem to stop thinking of fabrics to make another ... and another ... and another. It's so simple and cute and easy to make. Here's the front: And the back (love those little doggy fabrics):

And it hanging in the baby room:

(Can you believe the walls here used to be painters tape blue?! My poor patient husband - it took 3 coats of paint to cover that wild color with this butter yellow.)

A side note: Does anyone know how to download more of these letters to use in quilting? I'm not too tech savvy, but would love to know how to find more letters and/or different font to use in applique.

christmas pecans and quilt

I just love Amy Smart and her blog. She is always so inspirational and has so many darling quilts to share. I just finished a quilt that she collected the fabrics for - lots of retro Christmas fabrics that made up into a cozy old fashioned snuggly quilt.

Thankfully my kids were willing quilt hangers for these photos. Un-thankfully the lighting was terrible, and the next few days we had rain and snow, so I finally decided just to post anyway.

Here's the front: And the back (with Dr. Seuss fabric and some cute stuff from JoAnns):

And just a side note: This year for Christmas goodie sharing, I ordered some cute little jars online and filled them with candied pecans to take to neighbors and friends. We put a little sticker label on the front, saying Merry Christmas from our family, and took them around this weekend.

That was a super fun project, and a big hit as well. I love giving out cute little goodies.

alien quilt

Okay, I just submitted my first ever quilt to a quilt challenge/contest. Not really in my comfort zone, but the challenge of creating a "modern" quilt, from my own design, intrigued me. I am a stay-at-home mom, however loosely that may be interpreted. I often feel that I live out of my car, playing taxi lady to and from activities. I really don't stay at home. I also work - all day, every day. But not for pay. At least not the monetary, instant gratification kind. My work is more of the long-term pay-off type. I hope our kids turn out good and happy. I also do a lot of laundry.

Thinking about this quilt challenge, I snapped this picture. Alien invasion/endless black hole of laundry? Could be an inspiration ... ... Found a couple of fabrics in my stash that I just love ...

... and voila! A quilt with endless black holes and aliens all over it. Much cuter than a load of dirty clothes, but it sure was fun to make. And I even got it finished 3 days before the deadline - good for me!

But I can't forget to show this part. When here for a visit, my dad fell in love with the design of this quilt, loving the 3-D aspect. I have to give full credit to him for the idea of using glow in the dark thread to quilt it - I didn't even know they made such a thing! I will also give full credit to my kids for taking it into the dark laundry room and yelling and screaming about how cool the thread really was. Quite entertaining.

Oh, just a little FYI, so you can learn the easy way: Don't use glow in the dark thread for the top stitch and the bobbin. It's slippery and the tension won't work well. A regular thread on the bottom works much better. Do I really need to mention that I learned this the hard way?

wave quilt

For church, we have had an ongoing service project to make and collect quilts for various shelters in need. One lady, unable to quilt herself, donated fabric to those of us who can quilt. This is the quilt that I made from her fabric donations.

Front: Back:

Moda fabric - came from this fabulous tutorial.