Whew!

Things here are slowwwly returning to normal. Thank you for all the well-wishes. I haven't been great at replying to people; sorry if I haven't replied to you. Right now I'm working on some doll bedding for my daughter's third birthday. I wanted to do something tiny to get back in the swing of things. So I've got a cute little blue doll quilt on the go. Question: Do you use smaller binding when you make a doll quilt? I never have, but I'm wondering if I should try.

I found some wonderful white material that belonged to my mother-in-law, who passed away 10 years ago this June. It makes me so sad to know my girls will always be missing someone so significant. I'm always trying to find ways to include her in our daily lives. I worked another fabric she owned into both the girls' baby quilts. I'm planning on using this white fabric for the new blocks quilt.

A productive evening

Well I got waaayyy ahead of myself. My hubby was out last night and I was not used to having that time to myself that I went a bit crazy! I decided to do this quilt by Amanda Jean, with a little variation. I'm going to put a thin boarder around each block before I add white sashing. This will have to wait though, as I'm out of white. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to make a little trip to the fabric store.......

Looking forward

I found this cool website and made the photo above. I love the drive-in that's close to my house and look forward to it opening every summer. And since I have 2 little ones, it's a great date night for my husband and I, plus no sitter needed. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the winter, and definitely don't want to wish away the spring, but the summers here are great.
My whirlygiggle quilt is coming along really nicely and I think I may have it together by the end of the weekend. I've also been cutting for a second whirlygiggle quilt to put on the wall in the nursery.
I'm looking for a pattern for a baby quilt for a friend. I've made some alphabet quilts in the past and may make another one. She has a jungle theme going in the nursery and I've got nothing in my stash that will go. I'm having a hard time visualizing an animal print baby quilt.
I'm also trying to make some roman blinds for the nursery. I've looked for ones I like for a few months and can't find any, so this weekend I'm going to try and make some. Wish me luck!

It's a cold one!!!

Boy, is it cold here today! I volunteered to take the dog out this morning, since DH had hockey late last night. I nearly froze, even with my long underwear and wind pants on. I have a very active pup, and even he wanted to come back inside!

I took this picture out my side window (from inside) and it is beautiful out.



Here's a picture of the baby quilt I'm basting. I know the colours seem a bit weird for a baby quilt, but remember I was in pretty advanced labour while I was picking them. The blue fabric was really calling to me, and so I bought it, and searched around the store for coordinating prints. My nursery is green and yellow, so this will look alright in it. I bought some chocolate brown to use as the binding. I've decided to hand quilt it, so Babe might be waiting awhile for it.

I did some more work on the quilt for my mom's birthday and I'm not too happy with it. The fabric is pretty busy. I think I'm going to have to add in some solid black sashing to break it up a bit.

Sorry about the layout of this post...I can't seem to correct it.

3 gorgeous gifts

We had a wonderful weekend visiting family. My older daughter was so well behaved. She made it through late night parties, lunch in a restaurant and a trip to visit her very ill great-grandmother. I am so proud to be her mom. As a stay at home mom (for now) I sometimes feel inferior around my career oriented friends. But watching my 2 year old behave so well reminds me that I couldn't be doing anything else. And the baby was just a doll - slept, ate and didn't want to be put down for a second.
I couldn't ask for anything more.


We received a beautiful gift from one of my husband's co-workers. This pretty little quilt is hand quilted with tiny, perfect stitches that I will never be able to achieve in my quilts. I am so touched by the thought and effort that went into this quilt.

Got a few things done...

Here is my almost finished tree skirt. The design was inspired by Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. It's a bit hard to see in the picture but there's a hole cut in the middle. Now I just need to bind the edges and put the snaps on. I'm not really sure why I decided to make this, a DH has an elaborate train set and village that goes around the bottom of our tree. I may pass this on to my Mom as a gift, a lot of the fabric scraps are from stockings I made for her a long time ago.






Here is my SIL's finished "Canadian Girl Overseas" top. We are all anxious for her to get home. The trick will be for me to get this quilted and bound before my brother leaves for Halifax mid-December. Any suggestions for how to quilt it quickly? I was thinking of doing diagonal lines in the centre area and then something else in the boarders.
I also made a stocking for our new arrival and have been working on a scrap blue jean quilt, just trying to keep myself busy.

Here's the view down my very dark street. It's only about 5pm in this pic and we'd taken my daughter out for a ride in her sled. It's snowing right now and we've just made cinnamon buns. I'm going to town today to finish my Christmas shopping and to enjoy a few hours out of the house. I'm also dropping in to the fabric store to pick up batting and maybe treat myself to a few new FQ's
My quilting plans for this week are to baste my Canadian Girl quilt and maybe start working on quilting it.
The baby is due Monday so I never know when a post may be my last for awhile. Wish me luck:)

Second post today

I thought I'd do a second post and show the things I've been writing about. Here's my wonky winter houses. I'm almost finished the binding and then I can tick this one off my UFO list. I'm thinking of making a pillow case (for my chair, not for the crib) and maybe a wall hanging to go with these. I had a lot of fun trying out this new style of quilting. It really cured the boredom I sometimes have doing piecing (especially if all the blocks are the same). Tonya offers so much help and so many detailed tutorials that this was pretty easy to pull off. Check her out here.
These are those bonus pinwheels I've been working on. I found a second baggie of navy and blue triangles, which are now also becoming pinwheels for this project. I'll admit, I didn't do much to these, not even square them up. I should have enough to make a throw size quilt for my friend's summer wedding. I'm still thinking of sashing and boarders....stay tuned.

Lastly, here is a picture of the quilting frame my Hubby bought me for Christmas last year. He just HAD to put it up on the wall last week before our Thanksgiving guests arrived. I keep meaning to use it, but I get impatient. The cool thing about it is that it rolls the top, batting and backing for you, no basting required. If you despise basting like I do, then this is a very good thing! The only down side to it is that although it can change size (from baby quilt to king), and lay flat, it doesn't fit under any of my basement furniture. Hence the wall display :)

This weekend my in laws are coming up for my father-in-law's birthday dinner. He has a lot of food allergies, so luckily we're going out for dinner (I can't handle the stress of cooking for him, someone is always double and triple checking that I'm not using any of his 'banned' foods). I have some shopping to do at the farm near by and we have to clean up all of our summer stuff and put it away for the winter. When the snow hits here (and it did on November 1st last year), it hits hard. I love the fall, but there's something magical about the first snowfall that I always look forward to.

Will this quilt ever get finished????

I am still working on my Carolina Crossroads by Bonnie quilt for my brother and sister in law. This corner looks a bit wonky, but I love how the baptist fans look. It may not have been the best quilting choice for the tiny sqaures, but it's an easy design to hand quilt.
My problem is that I'm working on this quilt somewhere between 3 and 10 hours a week and I'm starting to feel like it will never be finished. I know that whenever it does get done, it'll be a big accomplishment for me.
My husband got me a quilting frame for Christmas last year and I'm planning on using it to do my next hand quilting project.
My plans for today include some baking, quilting and going out for a walk, if it stops raining. I have a boarder to add to my orange crush quilt, a backing to iron and I want to do some more work on my blue basket weave quilt. Not too sure if I can get all 3 done while my daughter naps, but I'm going to try.

Little gift quilt

Boy am I missing my camera! These are the best pictures I could get of this little quilt! It's Smoky Mountain Stars by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville, and I used up most of my bright small scraps making this puppy. I didn't take any pictures of the back, but I used up some really 'hard to work with' fabric for it. I quilted this one on the machine and just did vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines.
I'm most excited that I'm finished another quilt and another Christmas present. This brings my unfinished total down to just 5, with 2 being Christmas presents. Which is great because I have about another month to finish these. I'd love to squeeze in some sewing for my family or things for my own home....but this may have to wait until next year!
I just got a call from one of the girls, asking me to go out tomorrow night for 'coffee' (I'll have to stick with water). I think I could use a night out, even if it's a quick night!

Hope everyone out there in Quilt Land is doing well!

One of my first quilts

I'm working on this blue basket weave quilt this weekend. This is from a Debbie Mumm book my mom bought me probably 8-10 years ago. I can't even find the book anymore. The seams don't match in a lot of places, but it's a finished king size quilt top and the quilt currently on my bed desperately needs replacing. It makes me happy to see how far I've come from this quilt, which I found very difficult at the time, to the quilts I make now.

My progress this weekend has been slowed by two things:
#1 I moved some of my sewing stuff down to our rec room. There just isn't room in my dining room for it all anymore. My husband helped me to move a desk and brought in some old shelves for me to store things on. I'm pretty happy about having my own space that I don't have to clean up every night before supper!
#2 I started quilting on the little stretchy stars quilt. I'm about a quarter way through the basket weave, but I just wanted to tick something off my list.

As I've mentioned, I'm pregnant, which is making some things difficult. I'm having trouble 'bellying up" to my machine, and cleaning just doesn't get done. While I was setting up my new sewing corner yesterday, DH cleaned the whole main floor! Dusting, vacuuming, windows - the whole deal. Now that's romantic!!!!
Happy Weekend Everyone!

Orange Crush Boarder Help!

Help! I've finally finished the top for my Orange Crush mystery quilt, designed by Bonnie over at Quiltville, but I am unhappy with my orange boarder. I'm thinking of adding a dark blue one, but I don't have any left in my stash. Any suggestions?
This weekend, my big quilting plans are to finish quilting a blue basket weave quilt for my bed, and basting a fun little quilt for a Christmas gift.
UFO update: I've now got 4 finished quilt tops, one quilt I'm hand quilting and one I'm machine quilting. 3 of these are to be Christmas gifts. It's going to be tight!

Hubby's quilt is finally pieced!

I started a very brave thing a few years ago. My husband was always complaining that i made quilts for other people and never made one just for him. So I took him fabric shopping and let him pick out the fabric for this one. I was surprised that he was drawn to the country cottage look. I wasn't a huge fan of some of the stuff he picked but I bought just enough to finish the quilt so it wouldn't end up sitting around.
The quilt did sit around though, for several years, as I worked on projects that were more exciting to me. Now that I'm on a finishing streak, I brought it out again and finished it up. The only problem is that I didn't realize how much waste this quilt would have! I decided on these 2 blocks long before I learned about the ez angle ruler. So I have hundreds of triangles in fabric that I'm not crazy about. Luckily I've already matched them into pairs to make pinwheels and have started using them as leaders and enders.
Now I just need to go and press this thing! I got a hand quilting frame for Christmas last year and I'd love to start using it. I think this quilt would really benefit from some pretty hand stitching in all those empty blue spaces.
My husband has tomorrow afternoon off work. I can't wait for us to relax as a family of three this weekend. It may be one of the few times we have left before we become a family of 4! I'd better get working on those UFO's!!!
*I'm still without my camera. These photos are all ones from my phone, so I apologize about the poor quality! Hopefully I'll have my camera back soon.....