Wonky Homes Wall Quilt

Made this cute little quilt to hang in my sewing room. All the blocks are each made by a different talented lady that I met through swap-bot. We each made 10 blocks and mailed 1 block to each of the 9 people in the swap. I didnt add my block this, just the lattice and binding and then I did some more practice free motion quilting. Around the homes I did some curly miandering and then in the lattice I did some flower and vine miandering. If you click the picture u can see it larger and maybe see the quilting better. Isn't is just so cute! I love these wonky homes!

label for the quilt

I really like how the label turned out, so thought I would share it with you too :). Every quilt should have a label or at least some writing on the back saying who made it, when, and where for future reference when we are gone.

Pictures Finished!!

Im in LOVE with this quilt!!! nuff said :)

Pictures of the binding

Not finished yet, but it's coming along great!

Its Here, Its Here, Its Here...

No not Santa! Even Better! My ladies quilt! It is just Beautiful!!! Pictures do not do it justice at all but I will upload some and later after Ive finished the binding Ill get some better one's. Click on the images for larger pictures.

Strip Quilt Finished

Finished up binding the strip quilt this afternoon. I really love how this turned out. When I was FM quilting this I added a couple of hearts, candy canes and a little message for my son.

Still here! :)

I'm still here! Been busy with life. I have made a few things and finished some things. I crocheted some cute little snowflake ornaments for the Christmas tree and finished up the free motion quilting on my sons strip quilt. I still need to add the binding but the hard part is done! Im also awaiting the arrival of my "Ladies" quilt. My longarm quilter put it in the mail Thursday and the tracking shows it due here on Wednesday! Im so Excited to get this back, I just KNOW it's beautiful! I cant wait to give it to my sister and niece for Christmas. I also found the Perfect fabric to bind it with. Its a light pink with multi color dots that I think will just POP! Can you tell Im excited? I'm just so glad I could do this for my Mom. I miss her so much! Everyday I still have moments that I can't believe she is gone. One day I even had to call her phone number to get the message "The number you have called is no longer in service." Yes I cried like a baby, but I think I needed to hear that in order to "Get it" that she will no longer answer when I call.

Tree and Mug Rug

Here are my pics of the Christmas tree I promised and a mug rug I made this week in all of my chaos I call life. So far this week and this is only Tuesday, my husband had four wisdom teeth removed so Im baby sitting him, my 8 yr old St Bernard passed away last night and, buried her this morning and called to set up appointments for my kids flu shots after school on Thursday and me and my 18 yr old get our flu shots Saturday, and then all of the usual home stuff that every mom has to do daily, and with a husband home, in bed, but still cabable of making messes LOL... I feel wiped out already. Hoping things slow down. So here are the pics of the tree and mug rug. Stay tuned for hopefully a slower more quilt productive week :D

Been Busy!

Making these scrappy cards for a swap in a yahoo group. They are so fun and such a nice way to use up some of you small pieces of scraps that are too small really to use in anything but too big for me to talk myself into throwing away :D ... Hi, My name is Vicki and Im a fabric/scrap horder LOL ... and tonight I got the Christmas tree up! Phew, I wish it didnt look bad to leave it up year round, cause I dread taking it down as much as I dread putting it up. Last year it didnt come down until March LOL and only then at the insistance of my hubby. Ill get pictures of the tree tomorrow, too tired tonight.

Ladies Quilt ready to go to the quilter

Well it is finally going to the longarm quilter. I cant wait to get it back. It is on my daughters queen bed here, and it fits so nicely! Which btw was my son's bed until he moved out last week so she doesnt have the bed skirt and stuff to fit it yet :)

I'm so happy it turned out so good. My mom would be proud I think :) Love ya Mom!

I just LOVE this and had to share it. It just makes me smile :)

Another Scrap Buster Pillow

Still using up those UFO's! These UFO's were made using scraps and sewn strip by strip onto a muslin backing fabric. Today I put the four squares together, made my quilt sandwhich and free motion quilted in a meandering pattern using yellow thread to highlight the quilting.

UFO's

  Do you have them? We quilter's always seem to have them in lying around in drawers, bags, closets... you name it, if we can hide it there, there are some UFO's in there. What is a UFO you ask? No not the space ships that come to visit earth and bring us friends that like to eat our reese's pieces but the UnFinished Objects that we have started and put aside for another day, to which the day never seems to come.

  Well I'm going to try to start using up some of these. So to start it off, I have taken four string pieced squares I made some time ago along with two pieces I made for backs to the pillows I created the other day that I messed up cutting on because of distractions in my sewing room, and I miscalculated were to place my ruler. They were sewn up and looked to pretty to scrap, only a inch too short for what I had intended them for, so I just needed to make a smaller pillow to fit them to. So here they are! Now my stash is down by 4 blocks and 2 backs :) I know, I know, not much of a start... but hey, a start is a start! Right?

Story of Bottled Water

I saw this on another blog and found it very interesting. I remember the days of Pierre water. Do you? Watch this, I bet you find it interesting too!

I just cant get enough!

Of these pinwheel pillow's that is :) I just had to make another one today. This one is made with the same line of fabrics as the other pillow and the placemats. This one is bordered with a butter cream yellow. Makes me crave cupcakes! hee hee

Pinwheels go round and round.

Who doesn't love pinwheels? Well I certainly do! So here is a pillow cover that fits a 16x16 pillow form. This adorable pinwheel on patchwork background is just adorable and matches the placemats I finished yesterday.

Placemats

This is what I've been working on the last few days, whenever I could grab a few minutes to sew. Placemats! I cut them all out about 4 months ago and then never got around to sewing them together. This was my first time making and using prairy points and I think they are lovely! The points are so cute and add a bit of interest to the placemats, and best of all they are so EASY to make! Best of all I got to practice my free motion quilting. So much easier to practice on these smaller projects, and I can honestly say my skills are beginning to get better. At least I'm now to the point I'm not embarrassed for anyone to see my work :)

Another Great Blog

Amberingz
Amber is the writer of this blog. She shares about life and art. She is a very talented artist in many of mediums from ATC's to jewelry making. Very interesting and eye catching, you will love reading this blog full of inspiration!

Feeling Festive!

Well, I got my quilt finished, all I have left is to piece the backing and send it off to be quilted... YAY!! So of course being a quilter, we never rest :) I pulled out some of my christmas fabrics and decided I needed to use them up ( so I can buy more of course). Looked through some books and patterns to see what I wanted to make and came across this little wall hanging in Elenore Burns book Egg Money Quilts. I loved it and had to make it! So using only stash fabrics here it is....



Wait for it.....




Wait for it.....


                                                                                     Ta Da!!!!

Isn't it just the cutest wreath you've ever seen?! I Love the great big 3D bow the most!! I love it! It is a pretty nice size at 26x26.  Real Christmas eye candy, if I do say so myself :)  I can't wait for my wall quilt hanger to arrive so I can hang it up in style! The design wall just does nothing for it. ha ha  Ive decided to make a couple more to give as gifts to my childrens teachers for Christmas. I think they'll like them. They can display them in the class room or hang it on their doors! Very kid friendly with  nothing on it to fall off or a kid to choke on. Plus it's a good way to use up my stash!

Three More Blogs for the swap

Well I've come to the end, down to the last three blogs in my swap list. Im so glad I joined this swap, because all these blogs have been so great to read and inspiring in so many ways. Thank you all for sharing them with me!

Sanity's Overrated
A SAHM who loves to read, write and a gamer as well. She give's book/movie reviews with some discussions on swaps, as well as a look inside her everyday life.

The Sweet Maple Diary
This blog is for all you scrapbookers! A very talented crafter, she offers FREE downloadable kits as well as digital wedding invitations! Im not a scrapbooker myself, but this site makes me wish I didnt go blank when handed a piece of paper!

She's Crafty She's Just My Type
A single mom with RSD who has found release through her art. A sharing of her life and art this blog is a great blog to read for inspiration in life as well as art!

More I ♥ Your Blog!

Here are a few more of my partner's for the blog swap. You can also find buttons to these blogs on my page titled Favorite Bloggers in the right sidebar.

Crea Bloempje666 This Blog is all about the good things in life. Food, Pets, Bags, Swaps, and recipes so you can make your own food! :) The mustard soup looks Delicious!

Novel Niche This is a great blog that gives a review on novels. A wonderful place to visit to find a review on a book you may be thinking of reading, or maybe Find a book you would love to read!

Kimitty Kim This blog is a fun, free spirited approach and look into life, crafting, kawaii and flourescent hair! It's a breath of fresh air to read this blog. It will brighten your day!

Two More blog partners to check out.

I decided it would be too much to list all seven blogs together in one post so each day I will post two blogs and give you a few details about each one.

Kimberly is the blogger of Keeping up with the Joneses
. She is a stay at home mom of three kids. She homeschool's her oldest, with another in kdg. and has a baby who's almost one. She blogs about her life as a mom, wife and crafter. She enjoys creating journals and atc's, gardening and offers alot of good information on taking photo's. Her blog is full of picture's that will catch your attention and keep you reading.

Jen is the blogger of Random Adventures by Hippofairy. She is a very funny, insightful blogger. Her blog takes you through a day in the life of a hippofairy :) from days spent at the county fair, dinner out, to her experiences with the P90X workout... and the picture of her after the workout is enough to keep me from trying! She also tells you the endearing story of how she got the name Hippofairy and what one person's idea of a hippofairy was! lol A very cute blog and worth a read.

I ♥ Your Blog

So I joined this swap on swap-bot to get more traffic to our blogs by exchanging blog buttons with our partners. Im so glad I did too, because there are so many amazing bloggers out there and this makes it so much easier to find them.

One of the bloggers I partnered with has a wonderful blog Jexyland. She is so inspiring! She offers tutorials on just about everything, links to other tutorials, pdf downloads and so much more! I will definitely check her out often! I love tutorials and making new things that are sometimes outside my box! See the little "I ♥ Handmade Stuff!" button over to the right --------> with the cute little sewing machine! She made that too and offered them up for grabs on her blog! Isn't it just cute! I just had to have one :) So please take a minute, run on over to her blog and check it out, You won't be disappointed!

Another partner is the writer of this fabulous blog Only In Cambodia. It's a wonderful exploration that takes it's readers on an insider's journey through the real world of Cambodia. Filled with beautiful articles, pictures and her own experiences, it really touches your spirit and gives you a feeling that you have actually taken your own spiritual journey, met the people and learned the ways of this magnificent country. A great read!

Maybe if I put it out there...

for the entire blog world to see, I will make it to goal. I'm going to be 40 on my birthday in January and I want to lose the few extra pounds Ive kept on since my daughter was born 5 years ago before my birthday. Wish me luck and please feel free to leave feedback anytime, maybe it will keep me motivated :)



I just finished week 5 of the couch to 5k running plan. I used to run everyday, and was always athletic in school, but hurt my knee 2 years ago and it just got too easy to sit around at my sewing machine :) so now Im trying to get back to making time for me again and taking charge of my health. So here's to forty, I hope you are good to me! :)

Kiwi's Blogger Follower Swap

Swap-bot swapper's/follower's please leave your comments here. Thanks! I'm excited to be swapping with you!

EQ7... Finally Scallops!

I finally figured out how to make my scalloped border in EQ7 You have to make your border into blocks and then in the block area with the curved line make a block with the curve u desire then add that curve into your blocked border then insert another ( i used a mitered) border just in front of the blocked border with the curves, then when u color them both in, only color inside the curve and the new inserted border the same color and Wa La.. You have a Scalloped border! :) Guess I could have been working on the real thing instead of creating my virtual quilt, but it was so much fun!

EQ 7

Why did I not buy this sooner? I thought it would be too hard to figure out, like a couple of other quilt building software's Ive tested in the past but it's not! It's AMAZING! So you can see my rough draft that I drew on graph paper in my prior post here Rough Draft and here it is made on the EQ 7

 It even has the fabric's Im using already in the library! I just got this today and figured out this much, I still haven't figured out how to make the scalloped border but still This Is Awesome! :)

And here is a picture of it on my design wall, I haven't added the last border yet.

Amazing, huh? :)

No borders, but gifts I did make!

Well besides the daily in's and out's of being a mom of 5 kids, which takes up most of my weekend time for sewing, I found out Friday afternoon that my kids school bus driver is moving this week. Her last day for driving the bus was Friday, she will be at school this week and then will leave next weekend. So I couldn't let her leave without showing her how much she is appreciated for the care she has given to my kids throughout the years. I made her these personalized towels with her last initial, and a little drawstring bag filled with CHOCOLATES, Cookies, wrapped up and topped off with some tulle and my kids created some art tags that they signed and strung to the front of the bag. I also added a little thank you note. So I did get some sewing done, just not any quilting.

And as promised here are some pictures of my sewing studio. The two bookshelves with curtains hide my stash of fabric, besides what I have in the closet's in several rooms :) This room is still a work in progress, I still need to paint (Im thinking yellow! and decorating with robin egg blues, lime greens,  soft purples and pinks!), put up new trimming and window frames, new hard wood flooring, I dont like carpet in here, I think hardwood would be so much easier to sweep up.

And a couple pictures of my seal point siamese kitty that LOVES to take bathes. Everytime we turn the water on in the bath or shower he comes running and jumps right in!