Day of Quilting

Yesterday I spent most of the day quilting my guild mates quilt.  It is a queen size and I got more than half of it done.  But around 5 o'clock, after spending my whole day quilting this quilt, I found myself getting irritable.  For what reason I don't really know.  It could have been too many hours in the chair, or me rolling over the corner of the quilt with my chair ripping the batting close to the edge, or the fact that I see too many "wiggles" in my quilting lines than I am comfortable with.  Or it could have been all of those mixed together.   I found myself extremely grumpy so I decided to go do something else.  I went to the kitchen to check on my daughter who was preparing dinner and I brought my Mon Ami quilt to the table to baste it while I chatted with her and helped her out a little.  --    My daughter and I have deal:  She was $8 short of buying some clothes she wanted.  So I told her I would pay the $8 if she would cook 8 meals for us.  She agreed, I was excited.  :)

After dinner I started the quilting on my Mon Ami and my mood was was vastly improved.  Not sure if it was the cheery yellow or the fact that I was working on a project of my own that I get to keep, but either way, working on this project helped me get back to a calm relaxed state.

I didn't get to finish the quilting last night, but this is what I have so far.  I stitched in the ditch around each block, but I want to add some more quilting inside each block.  Not sure what type yet, perhaps some swirly type quilting  inside each star.  I shall ponder over it for a bit and post the finished photo later this week.

Diaper Pouch

I saw a tutorial for a diaper pouch at www.noodle-head.com.  It looked really cute, and I wanted to make one, but since my kids are all out of diapers I didn't really have a need for one.  But I did know someone who could possibly have a use for one and I just happened to have a babysitting date for her tonight.  She has the cutest little baby boy and that was all the reason I needed to make a diaper pouch for her.  It sewed together pretty quick.  I had it finished within an hour.  I even got to use up some of my fusible fleece scraps which were just the right size for this project.

Top Finished

I finished my Mon Ami quilt top this evening. 

Now I have to decide how to quilt it.

Quilt Basted

I basted this quilt yesterday.
A guild mate of mine made the top and asked me to quilt it for her.
I plan to have it ready to return to her by the next guild meeting in February.
I don't know the name of this pattern, but I really like it and I love her fabric colors.  I am excited to quilt it.

Mon Ami Blocks

I finished making the 25 blocks for my Mon Ami quilt.  I have 13 blocks with yellow stars, and 12 blocks with blue stars.  Next I need to put them together and add the borders, but I will have to wait till next week to do that, because I have two clients quilts that need quilting .  Once I get those other two quilts finished then I can go back to working on my Mon Ami quilt.

Winter Themed Fabric Postcards

This weekend I spent some time finishing up some Winter Wonderland postcards.
For these first three I used the blue scraps I had left over after cutting fabrics for my Mon Ami quilt.

This next  card was made using leftover scraps from previous appliqué projects.
The fabric already had wonder under on the back so all I had to do was cut it into the shapes I needed and iron everything together and then add my stitching.

This card was made earlier in the month.
It was made for the Fabricards "January Cover Girl" Challenge.

Starting my Mon Ami

Last night I made my first block for my Mon Ami Quilt.  I haven't made all the other blocks yet, but I have picked out the fabrics I want to use.

I went through my 2.5 inch fabric bin and pulled out 25 different blues and 25 different yellows to make all the blocks.  I was worried I wouldn't have enough yellows, but sure enough I did.  I had exactly enough.  The blues I had plenty of, I even had the option to pick which ones I wanted to go in the quilt and which ones I didn't.



I also cut enough white square to go with all the blue and yellow squares.  Later on this week I will mark all the white squares and sew all the half square triangles together.  I am very excited that I will have my very own blue and yellow quilt.


Blue and yellow together is one of my favorite color combinations. I have made quite a few quilts in this color combo, but I have given them all away.  One of my favorites was made in 2004.  I gave it to my brother for Christmas that year.  It was my first monkey wrench quilt.  A lot of the leftovers of that quilt will be going into this Mon Ami quilt.

Here is the monkey wrench quilt I made in 2004.
Funny how I thought I had a really good camera back then.  I thought all my pictures turned out really neat, but as I went back to find this photo, I realized that my camera back then didn't take pictures as well as the one I use today.  That makes me wonder how my pictures will look 6 more years from now.  I don't see how they can get better, but then again, I thought the same thing 6 years ago.

Three More Mosaic Color Play Blocks

Three more Mosaic Color Play blocks swapped. These are the three I made for my partners.

The first went to Donna in Montana, the second is at Shirley's house in Canada, and the last one is on its way to Karyli in Idaho.

I still need to take a photo of all the blocks I have received.
The best way to do that would probably to put them all together in quilt form.  :)

Winter Dotee Dolls

I made these dolls around this time last year and totally forgot to blog about them. So I decided to post about them now. They were for a swap in one of my groups.

It was the first time I had ever made dotee dolls.  They were fun to make, but I wasn't smitten by them and haven't made any more since then.  That is also probably why I forgot to blog about them last year.

It was hard to get a good picture of their face without it washing out, so I took a photo of one inside where the sun wasn't so bright.

Mini Tree Quilted and Bound

I finished the quilting and bound up my mini tree quilt today.
Just in time to pack it up with the other Christmas decorations.

At least it will be something new for next season along with all the other Christmas decorations I got on sale the couple of days after Christmas.  Once a whole year has gone by I usually have forgotten what I bought and carefully packed away.  So each year it is like opening little surprises when I get out the decorations.

Prairie Point Christmas - Le Petite #3

Here is my version of Prairie Point Christmas for the Le Petite Small Projects.
I made a very mini version. It measures 9.5 x 15 inches.

I had a whole pile of Christmas fabrics already cut into 2 inch squares so I decided to go ahead and use those.

It turned out pretty cute, but it also turned out a little shorter and fatter than the original.

I think I spaced my prairie points too far apart on the first row and by the second row when I realized things weren't going according to the picture, I didn't feel like ripping it all out, so I have a short fat tree.

  Right now it is only spray basted because I am not sure how I want to quilt it.

I don't want to rush it and screw it up, so I will think on how to quilt it for awhile.

Gift for a Friend

I made these dishcloths for one of my friends for Christmas. Two are knitted and the other two are crocheted. I made them earlier in the year but didn't want to post about them until now because I know she checks my blog from time to time.  I didn't want to spoil any surprises.  

It was a good thing I made them earlier this year, because the 4 quilt project I took on in December took up most of my craft time for the month.  It left me with hardly any time to make anything else.  I am still working on one last Christmas project.  I suppose it will have to be a New Year's Gift instead.

~~New Year's Resolution  -  Schedule my time more wisely in the coming year.~~

4 Quilts All the Same

I spent most of my December making 4 quilts for my neighbor.  She wanted a photo of all her children in the quilt and my husband suggested we add names as well.  I designed the pattern I wanted to use in November and the fabrics were delivered right before I left to go out of town for Thanksgiving.  So I had a little less than a month to get all 4 quilts cut, sewn, basted, quilted, and bound in time for Christmas.

I cut out all the fabric for all four quilts at once and started assembly line sewing pinwheels, but then I decided to work on one quilt and get it finished so my neighbor would have time to mail it out.  I finished that first one on the night of December 15th.  Since it was dark outside, Hubby held the quilt for me while I took an inside photo.  


 The last three quilts were all finished on Wednesday, December 22 and I gave them to the neighbor on the 23rd.  Please forgive these bad photos, my son dropped my camera right as I was about to take pictures of the last three quilts and the lens fell out. I wasn't able to get it back together right away, so I had to resort to using the camera in my phone.  Luckily I got a brand new Camera for Christmas which makes me want to hurry up and make a new quilt just so I can take a fancy picture.  :)

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!!

These are a few of the Christmas postcards I sent out this month.  

Hopefully they all made it to their new homes in time for the holiday.

My daughter started the Snowman Card and I took it over for her and finished it up.

Gifts for Teachers and Friends

Today was the last day of school for the year. YAHOO!!
No more getting up at 6:30am to get kids out the door.  - well at least not till next year.  

I made jars of hot chocolate mix for my sons to give their teachers.
I only needed 4, but I went ahead and made all 12 jars that came in the case.

I put the four jars inside these cute little treat bags that my daughter helped me make.  Since 8 of the bags were for her to her friends, I really put her to work on this project.  She actually did a lot of the machine sewing and even hand sewed all the turning openings.

 We stuffed her eight bags with Monster Cookies, chocolates, and candy canes.

The pattern is from Happy Zombie and you can find the pattern here.