One BIG Present Down...

I've been working on this for a few weeks as a Christmas present. I won't say anymore on the subject, because I don't want to let the "cat out of the bag". Love the warm colors, love the easy pattern, love who gets this quilt!

Latest Projects

This is a sneak peek at the latest quilt I am working on. For those of you who are family members, no fair telling, as this is a surprise anniversary present for grandma and grandpa Packard next July. Two of my sisters have taken different blocks to work on also. The pattern is Lori Holt's Reunion quilt. We have personalized it to fit our family with a four wheeler, projects, and our own deck of Make-A-Million cards! It will be so fun to see the finished product. The center block of the quilt is this family tree, complete with names on the leaves. They will be more noticable after I stitch the names on...

These may be hard to see, but these are the fabrics I am contibuting for the "I Spy" quilt swap that my daughter is heading up. She made one of these quilts herself a while back, and I loved the idea so much that I wanted to be in on her swap. The finished product will look like this.

It was so fun finding these fabrics. I usually don't look for these kind of prints for my sewing, unless I am making a quilt for my grandkids - which is exactly what this quilt will be for. (Although adults would probably love playing "I SPY" with it too!)

I'll be back when I get the rest of the squares for the entire quilt. Yay!

Another One Done!

I found this cute pillow pattern in Utah when I was visiting my sisters in June. I originally had bought it to make a pillow for my mother, who fits this sentiment to a "t". She will eventually get one, but THIS one is for a family girlfriend who is having her first baby in a few days. She got a bunch of wonderful little girl baby clothes for her soon-to-be arrival, but I wanted to do something a little different, maybe something more for HER...so this is for her. Congratulations Britney!

My New Project

Lately I've been working...AND working on these aprons. I am involved in a "swap" with 14 other ladies to get this quilt done. I am making 14 of these apron blocks by September 1st, when we will all get together and swap blocks, each coming away with 14 different aprons. This pattern calls for turn-under applique, which I love, and has been so fun. It will be REAL fun to get 13 other aprons at the end of the month! Here's a block in progress...
My stack of finished blocks. I have 4 more to go then my 14 will be done. At the end of the cherry stems on the pockets go "cherry" buttons. I have decided to leave them off and let the ladies choose their own buttons. We were also advised to use "vintage" fabrics on these. I am happy to say that I only had to get 2 pieces of fabric that I didn't already have. Yay for me!

Sorry this picture didn't turn out. I tried to get a clear one about 5 times. To no avail...

We used one of Lori Holt's cute patterns. I love her stuff. You can check out her site here. My next project will be her "Reunion" pattern for a fun family surprise! Got to finish this one in time though first...

Christmas in Ju...June!

I'm getting the itch to get working on something again, and this time the season has come calling. Not the season we're in...it's too hot to even want to do anything. So I had to put on my winter thoughts and think "cold" (or even "cool") to start this lovely project. It's a wallhanging from the creative mind of Nancy Halvorsen of Art to Heart fame called "Joy To The World." I love this pattern and have wanted to make it for quite a while. This is the sneak preview of it, as I still have to do the blanket stitching and detail work on it. Hope to get it done after this weekend. Actually, before Christmas. Too much going on...

In Remembrance...

A year ago next week, we lost two girls in our valley to a horrible car accident. These were girls that we knew very well, and we are still close to their families. We live in a very small community where everyone waves to each other on the street, knows a lot about everyone, and meets at the post office to get their mail. (We are so small that we have PO boxes at the post office). With the year mark coming up on these families, I decided to do something for the siblings of these two girls. I thought nothing would be greater than a homemade gift, so I put my thinking cap on and came up with these. I have to give my daughter credit for this cute idea of personalizing these pillowcases. You can check out her creative blog here. On the back of each pillowcase, each sibling is the sister's "favorite". This has been one of those "labor of love" projects...again.

Quilt for a Cause

For those of you who don't know, my third daughter is legally blind. She is 26 years old, a wife and mother of two little boys, and is on a mission to get treatment for her vision. After years of wearing glasses (which didn't help) and seeing eye doctors, she has finally been diagnosed with a birth defect - Optive Nerve Hypoplasia, or ONH. A birth defect usually means that there is no cure for the condition, but with the help of the internet, and some persistance, she has come across a site that offers help. Long story short, we are raising money to send her to China, where she will stay in a hospital for 40 days and receive injections of umbilical cord blood stem cells that will start renewing her vision. To us it is a miracle, an answer to prayer, and the only positive approach to "fixing her eyes." So... on to this quilt. As part of our fundraising, this quilt, made by me, will be raffled off at our first major event. It was made with an "American Primer" jelly roll and some extra yardage. I love this pattern so much that this is the 2nd quilt I have made using it. If you are interested in our daughter, you can click on the button on the right.

Here's to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel...

One forgotten and One in the works...

This last month I had to tell myself that I couldn't even look at my sewing machine because of a huge commitment that I had been involved in. Well, that is over and done with (and was a success, I might add) so now back to my machine, which is back from the dealer and running like a dream. I decided that my stash of charm packs was taking over my sewing room, so settled on this quick, one day project that finished up rather cute. I love these little gems hanging over the back of a chair, which is where they end up finding themselves. So here is the forgotten one...
and the one in progress. This little quickie used one of my honeybuns. This pattern is "Times Square" and ends up looking pretty spring-y in the "Swanky" fabrics. I just need to quilt this and bind it. I'm still trying to decide which overall quilting pattern I want to do on it. I know that I don't really want to do a stitch-in-the-ditch on it. That would take too much time and I want to get onto that next project. I have lost time to catch up on!

A New Twist...

It's always hard to come up with a gift for someone that seems to have everything, or could get anything themselves. I have one of those best friends, so naturally I usually end up needing to make something homemade for her, which is what I would rather do anyway. Thanks to Gail Pan and her Christmas block of the month this last year, I was able to come up with the perfect gift. I decided to take the "Christmas" out of the wallhanging and make it something that could hang all year long. I also used colors that would suit the feel of my friend's home. Rich, earthy, wonderful colors...
I also had to change two of the words in the blocks. Instead of using "merry" and "noel", I used the words "laugh" and "home", which work perfectly in the block.

Another project done, just in time for my new machine to head back to the shop. I think it is either going on stike after all of that sewing for Christmas, or it is actually possessed. It has been running on it's own - without the peddle foot or me doing anything. I'm afraid to turn it on for fear that it will work on a project without me! That's no fun for me...