Things Accomplished

Wow, it's great to be back in the quilting groove again! I really had no idea how much I missed it until at 6:30 this morning. I was setting at my table sewing and wondering what had ever taken me away from doing something I so much love to do? I still have no answer really, other than to say life! It sure does feel good though to getting projects completed again. Even at 6:30 am. Not being an early morning person, im usually not up for sewing at that time of day unless i have already been up all night...like tonight, thus far. With the house being nice and quiet, kids tucked in their beds, hubby off and gone...it was heaven on earth this morning. I just may have to make an attempt to get up early more often to sew.

The first project that I finished yesterday was the "completed" Dresden tabletopper. I really do not know if it's finished or not. I like it, but yet feel it still needs some quilting or something. It is intended for my husbands aunt. The question is, of course I like it so well, will I be able to part with it?

Again, the picture does these fabrics no justice at all. Have I mentioned that i am in desperate need of a new camera and also learn how to take good pictures that are nice and straight? It will come with experience right? I believe these fabrics are Aster Manor by 3 Sisters for Moda Fabrics. They were the first fat quarter bundle that i've purchased. I cant wait to visit my LQS in the near future to get other fat quarter bundles.

The project that im currently working on is this Sandy Gervais design. Sandy did an awesome job at coming up with this mini quilt for the Fall Blog Hop. I'm not sure that the one im working on will be nearly as cute as Sandy's as I didnt have enough ecru/cream/white scraps to do the patchwork like Sandy did on hers.

You can find this sweet little Pumpkin Spice design by visiting Sandys blog called Pieces From My Heart.

piecesfrommyheart-sgervais.blogspot.com

So, that is what I have been up to. I am creating again and life is good! Be back in the next day or 2 to show the finished Pumpkin Spice mini quilt.

Holly

It's Nearly October

Wow, I had known I was doing some serious neglecting of my blog these past few months. FEW months??? I was shocked when I logged in and saw i've been neglecting since March. I was still working at H&R Block this past March and that seems like it's been eons ago. The summer days that seemed to so slowly crawl by are gone and now the crisp fall air is setting in. I love fall though and am glad to see this past summer be just that, the past. It was not a kind summer at all! Although, I wont complain. Im a firm believer in that there is a "lesson" to learn for every tribulation that life deals at times. They are lessons/answers that i'd much rather not have to soul search to find. Sometimes, I find them. Other times, I dont. Irreguardless, trials and tribulations along with the good things in life are what makes me who I am. And since I still wake up each day, able to see another sunrise and sunset, life is still good even in it's darkest hours.

So what's new on the sewing/quilting front? Not a thing! I had started a Dresden Plate Table Topper way back when and it's still not finished yet. Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE to make Dresden Plates? I had started it with a fat quarter bundle and didn't have enough the print that I wanted for the border in it. Two weeks ago, I went to a Quilt Store in the hopes that they may have had the line of fabric I needed. I hit gold and they had it. The new fabrics, ric rac and started table topper have been lying in a nice little neat pile ever since. Sorry for the quality of the picture, it stinks, i know!

My good friend (sewing machine), that sticks by me through thick and thin has also been feeling quite neglected. She sets upstairs in her room just waiting for me to find some time to spend with her. Im feeling a few dates coming her way in the near future. Christmas will be here before I know it and I have several gifts planned. Christmas??? It's time to start thinking of that again too? But first, I must put the room back together again. I tore down the folding tables that I use for cutting and sewing for various reasons and that room had become a real mess through the process as I quickly needed the tables and had just thrown everything wherever there was room to throw.

I had also learned a new craft over the summer. Stitching Cards! They are so fun to do and so awesome to give away. I have made a few of them now for additional gifts. I do them in way that they they are able to be framed if the recipient so chooses and bought the frames to include in the packages given. Both recipients had thought they were the neatest thing. Both had been personalized with their names and such to fit the occassions. I have also made myself 2 bookmarkers. I laminated them with clear contact paper and put little tassles on them. So cute! This is a really cheap craft also. To get started, you just need some embroidery thread, card stock and needles. Oh and of course something to "punch" the holes in the card stock with. I just used my awl that I use for quilting. It worked perfectly. You could just use a regular sharp need too for punching. While i'd love to post pictures of the bookmarks that I have made, I don't understand all the copyright laws posted on the website of the patterns, so id better not put up pictures. However, you can take a look at the different patterns at www.stitchingcards.com if you'd like to see.

I guess this is all for today. Perhaps later in the day, I will reacquaint my sewing machine and kitchen table again. They had a relationship long ago before the days of my taking the time to turn a spare bedroom into a sewing room. And if I sew, then i'd have a reason to come back and keep updating with the finished table topper pictured above and get some incentive to start on other projects.

Hopefully, i'll be back soon with something fun to talk about and get reacquainted with Blogland.

For now, take care and see you soon.

Holly

Still Living

Oh yes, it's true! I am still alive and life is busy, but good! Although, I've not did any sewing at all. I havent even been in my sewing room for several weeks now. I hear it calling my name at times and i just cant find the time to escape into my own little haven and let all my cares of the world roll off my shoulders by the way of sewing.
I started back to work for Tax Season on January 4th and as much as I really do enjoy my job and get to see people, I really miss my sewing time.
Today, I had to work only for 3 hours and as I was finishing my short but much enjoyed shift, i was wondering what i'd do with my afternoon? I didnt really have any plans to speak of. As I was on my way home, it suddenly hit me. I hadnt been to my LQS since before Christmas. So off the the LQS I went to visit. They had the cutest pattern there with 9 little mini quilts. Of course, it had to come home with me. As well as 4 fat quarters. I was in bliss!
A few months ago, my camera stopped working. It no longer has a working flash. WOOhoo, a new camera is in the future soon. One just cant keep up a decent sewing/quilting blog without a decent functioning camera, right? Hey, it sounds like a good excuse to tell my husand!
Life in general has been treating me very kindly these past few months. There's been very few downs and alot of ups!
And there ya have it. My life for the past few months while I wasnt very successful at keeping up with blogging. As you can see, there wasnt much by way of sewing to blog about. I hope to be back at sewing, blogging, picture taking, etc again very soon.

Holly

I Am So Excited

Just what could have me so excited enough to keep me wide awake at nearly 3am? I'm going somewhere tomorrow. Somewhere that is new to me. Somewhere that im hoping will throw me into a transe. Somewhere that I hope I find the day trip worthy enough to make many more trips in the future. So where could this place be?
Well, let me start from the beginning. I believe it was Tuesday night to Wednesday morning. I had crawled into bed at what seemed like my normal bedtime this past week. Approximately, 4:30 am. The television was playing and I really wasnt paying much attention to it at all, as I was exhausted.
Oh no, I did not hear what I thought I may have just heard? Or did I? My eyes flew open, I rolled over and glanced at the tv. Ah yes, I did hear it right. It's a commercial for a Quilt and Antique store. The video of the store was awesome and showed bolt upon bolt of fabric. The best part? It is much bigger than anything that i've been in to this point and looks very sophisticated. I tell myself to make a note of the store and look it up on the internet when I awake later that morning.
I fell asleep thinking about that store and I woke up thinking about that store. As soon as i'd gotten the boys off to school, it was time to look on the internet for this seemingly wonderful place. I find, it's about 1 1/2 hours from my home. The next thing I want to know is if they carry Moda precuts and yardage? Oh darn, they have very little exact fabric lines listed on their site. Ok, the phone number to the store is listed. "I'm saying to myself, "Holly, get the things done you need to do, then call this store to ask your questions".
To make a long story short, they do carry Moda precuts and yardage. I am especially interested in Lila Tueller designs. However, when I asked specifically if they carry Lila Tueller fabrics, the girl on the phone wasnt sure. Oh Darn!!
After giving it some more thought, I say I can live with them possibly not have exactly which fabrics I prefer. They still carry Moda and that's good enough for me. I have yet to find a Quilt store in my area that carries it. It's still worth a trip to go and see just what they do have. Moda has many wonderful designers and im sure that I will find another line or 2 that I am nearly as crazy about.
So, tomorrow after my DH gets finished with doing the few things he needs to get done, we're on the road to go and visit this place. And, that is why im so excited!
I hope to remember to take my camera along and snap a few pictures to post. If it's allowed, ill be back hopefully Sunday Evening to post the pictures.

Super Sunday

Ahh, FINALLY a good day! This past week had been totally manic in every way possible. My husband and I got a good dose from Wednesday to yesterday as to what people were talking about when they spoke of Teenagers. Nope, they werent exaggerating a bit. In fact, perhaps they were understating? Or was it that I was really naiive enough to think my 15 year old teenager would be different? Perhaps, a little of both? Anyways, enough of that. Today is the start of a new week and hopefully much better days. :)

There's not really much to report on the quilting/sewing front. However, I did find some really fun things to share about while browsing the web last night. I will share those ideas in a bit.

Remember the Dresden Plate Quilt that I posted about? I did finish it and gave it as a wedding gift. The happy couple loved it. We were camping that weekend and before I started to put the Quilt into a gift bag, I wanted to take a picture of it. Leaving home without checking the camera batteries was NOT a good idea to say the least. I didnt have any pictures to speak of! Luckily, the bride is a family member and she was kind enough to get pics of it for me. I picked the best one to somewhat show you how the quilt ended. It really is pretty. The picture isnt the best, but I was happy to have at least one.



And if that "forgetting to check the batteries in camera" mishap wasnt enough to learn from, what did I go and do today? I forgot to completely take a picture of last nights project.

While scouring blogland last night, I found a tutorial to make the most adorable little apron ensemble, complete with a chef's hat. As we were visiting my husbands cousin last week while she was baking cookies with her 3 year old little girl, I knew I had the perfect recipient for the apron set. Omygosh, it turned out so darn cute! Actually too darn cute. But, alas I dont have pictures again. Mom said in passing that she would take a picture of Nattie baking her cookies this afternoon. I sure hope she does. Of course, if i do get a picture or 2, I will post them here.

So, what did I find interesting last night in blogland?

1. Did you know you can dye buttons? I didnt either! There's several ways to do this. Since I didnt request to quote anothers' blog, my suggestion is...if this is of interest to you, go to google and type in "how to dye buttons" in the search field. Sites will then pop up and you can choose the best method that works for you.

2. As an avid looker, or rather dreamer of Etsy, I found the most adorable Christmas Ornaments. Again, I didnt contact the seller to ask if i could post pictures of her creations on my blog, so you will have to do the work and go to etsy. In the search field, click on the drop down menu and click "sellers", in the box beside that, type "snowfish" and her items will come up in a new window. I assure you, it was very much worth the minute or 2 that it takes to get there. I'm really having a hard time restraining myself from buying several of these adorable ornaments.

Thats pretty much my blog ramblings for today! I'm looking forward to a new week and several ideas are brewing up on the quilting/sewing front. I hope to post a few later this week.

Life

Wow, it's been nealy 2 months since i've last posted? Yes, life surely does get in the way at times! However, i've still had some time to create here and there!

This wallhanging is my lastest creation. Although, it's not quite finished yet and I still need redo the checkerboard patches in it, I think I will be quite happy with it in the end. I am contemplating on doing this up in all blues or some other color to match my house. The design in itself is just do darn cute. If, I had one to leave up all winter long, id be so happy!



Mr Joe Cool Pumpkin here, what can I say? I LOVE HIM! This was the 2nd of these I made. I had to learn blanket stitching in this project. It is by far perfect, but for only the 2nd try, ill live with how it's done. Mr Joe Cool still looks cool!



This little jacket, I machine appliqued the Tinkerbell on the front of the jacket and also added another applique to the back! Little Miss Tinkerbell lover was quite happy with this when it was finished. I so love to create things for little girls!

And, there you have it! Other than one other project that I cant post at this time, that's what i've been up to in the way of sewing!

On a few other notes...

I just recently discovered Google Reader. What a surprise it was to find out how convenient this is. Daily, i'd scan all the blogs i so love to read, in fear that i'd miss a post. You do know, that would be traumatic right? ;) Neeless to say with an ever growing list of about 50 blogs now, this did take some time. With Google reader, ya just pop all the blogs into the program and Google tells you which blogs have been updated. If you dont have this and you like to keep up with several blogs, I greatly recommend it.

As a very good friend was kind enough to remind me the other day, Christmas was only 64 days away (I think it's now 62 days). Am I the only one who says that friend just can't be right? 60 some days away? Omygosh, lets change the subject already!

With that all being said, im gonna stop here before I bore you all. Plus, yes life is calling me and i've got all those Mom and Wife things to do today. Im back to blog again and I do have some of what I think are awesome things coming up to tell you about. So, keep checking back!

Have a great day,
Holly

Sweet Little Girl

This sweet little girl is my friends daughter. The one I mentioned about making the book bag for. She is just the sweetest little girl, I loved making this bag for her! Here she is on her first day back to school with her new book bag.

I've got the Dresden Plate Quilt nearly finished. It's one of my favorite traditional quilt patterns. I have always loved the pattern since I was a little girl. The intentions for this quilt was to keep it for myself. However, I needed a wedding gift for this coming Saturday. Guess where the quilt is going? Pictures of that quilt will be included in my next post.