Playing Catch-Up...

This past Friday, Baby Girl and Spartan went to the Daddy/Daughter Dance. First they went out to eat for dinner, then danced the night away...well, at least until 8:00 when the dance was done!

It's amazing to me how fast she is growing up! She is such a little darling!

On Saturday I took Baby Girl with me to a local quilt show. There were some beauties there! Here are my favorites in order of preference:

This one was just so sweet and simple. It reminds me that things don't have to be complicated to be beautiful!

This one I loved because of the applique flowers. They are blanket stitched on and beautifully done!

How cute is this one?!? I love that the maker made things dimensional on this. The jewelry and watch are real!

I love the colors and the over all romantic feel of this one! The images are gorgeous!

This one was my favorite because it incorporated everything I love in a quilt! First of all, it's quilted! Second it has applique. Third and the biggest draw for me, the embroidery! The maker did an exquisite job on the embroidery! This one gets my blue ribbon!

Quilt Test Run...

For Christmas my Mom got me 4 charm packs of Moda Portabello Market. I had mentioned to her that I loved the line and would like to make a quilt for my bed out of it. As Mother's do, she remembered!

The colors are much more vibrant in person.

I finally decided on a pattern that I really like. It is called "Friendship Braid" and it is in the book "Jelly Roll Quilts." Well, with everything I do, it wasn't quite going to work. The template is 5 1/2" long and the charm packs are 5" square! So I made a template based on their's and decided to do a test run on scrap fabric. I know from experience that when I get a "great idea," it'll probably fail horribly, so I have learned to test things out first. Miracle of miracles, it worked! Here is the result of my practice run:

Now my only dilemma is what do I do with this piece? It came out to be 12" x 20" in size. I could just make a pillow out of it, but that seems so uninspired! I'm looking for some help here, so please, send your ideas my way!

The Cutest Little Quilts!

Tracy at Imagine That...Quilts is giving away a personalized quilt. These quilts are so cute! She takes a picture of someone and uses their face in the "collage" of her quilt! Very clever! I can just see Baby Girl done up in one of these! Hop on over to her site and take a look! Go here to visit her homepage. Sign up! It's free and she offer's tutorials and will answer questions on how to do this! Very generous of her!

BOM ~ Block of the Month Goodness

There are some totally awesome FREE BOM's and free quilt alongs going on right now!

First up is "The Great Summer Holiday Mystery" quilt being hosted by Helen from Hugs from Helen. I picked up my materials yesterday:

The second is a BOM I am planning to do and is being hosted by Ellie at Ellie's Quiltplace . She has started us off with a snowman that you can either embroider or applique.

And last, but certainly not least is a 9 month long embroidery BOM offered by Gail from Gail Pan Designs.

These ladies are incredibly generous with their talents and patterns! I am really looking forward to making these up! Check out their sites and join in!

11...Funny Picture

Days to go...

Yesterday I took an ornament class at a LQS with my Mom. We really had a nice time with all the ladies and when I finish the binding on my ornament, I'll post a picture. This is an example of the ornament I made:



I made the ornament size and my Mom made the trivet size. She said we made the young (ornament) eyes versus the old (trivet) eyes versions! Afterwards, I got to have tea with Mom and her best friend until Spartan showed up with the kiddos and he and I went shopping.

Speaking of Spartan, just before I left for my class, I snapped the cutest picture of him. Baby Girl was giving him a makeover while he was studying for finals. He's such a good sport about this stuff! All the boys thought it was hysterical! Here is my bee-ute-ious husband:

She even put earrings on him!

I finished my step-sister's lap quilt this weekend. After I give it a wash, I'll post a picture of it. I really love the way it turned out. I know she will love it!

22...Advent Tree

Days to go...

I was inspired by the darling wall quilt advent calendar I saw over at Pink Chalk recently. I drafted up my own pattern using Kathy's directions. I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. I'm not so crazy about my ornaments (which I am still finishing up on as you can see they aren't all on yet), but I can always change them... some other year or other...

One thing I really like are the buttons I sewed on to hold the ornaments. Some are new, the striped, spotted and snowflake ones. The solid green and solid red ones came from my Grandmother's button jar. I wish she had collected enough to use just her buttons, but since most of her buttons came from clothes she wore over the course of her life, and apparently red and green wasn't something she wore very often, I had to add to them.

So have any of you made your own advent calendars?

A Quilt Show with Baby Girl

I went to a quilt show at a local church this weekend. There were some gorgeous quilts and wall hangings! I took a few pictures to share. Unfortunately, I can't find the charger for my camera, so I used my phone's camera. Not the best pictures, but still good enough to get the idea!

This one had the most gorgeous neon colors, they just don't show very well here:


This one was so sweet. It was made in 1893 and has that old world charm:



More gorgeous colors:


I wish this one came out better, it was my favorite! The butterflies are dimensional:



My Daughter's favorites:



This one was so sweet, I would love to make this one for my Daughter (it actually looks like I MIGHT be able to make it!):


Baby Girl and I had a great time at the quilt show. Everyone was charmed by her good manners and sweet disposition. She even managed to walk out of the vendor area with a free fat quarter and free Mary Englebrite buttons! They (two different vendors) told her that since she was such a good girl, she could have them to start her "stash." It was a wonderful, memory making afternoon!

Some Wonderful Giveaways!

There a some wonderful giveaways that you all must check out and sign up for:

Elizabeth over at Pigtails and Snails has a gorgeous, sunshiney quilt that she is giving away. It is her own pattern, so the first prize is the quilt and she is also giving away a second and third prize of the quilt pattern. Incredibly generous!

Laurie from My Home For the Holidays is giving away one of her Placemat Pocketbook Purses in celebration of her 100th post! Darling!

Dani at Olde Homestead Peddler is having a giveaway to celebrate starting to blog! She is giving away her own handmade darling candles and linen/room spray sets. There will be two lucky winners!

Farmchick over at Fresh from the Farm is giving away a soy candle, soy tarts and a sunflower stake all handmade by her (well, except for the stake)! Really cute!

Don't miss out on all this giveaway goodness!

A Couple of Giveaways...

First check my sidebar for a link to the cutest little potion bottles that Aunt Manny's is giving away. Can't you just see these sitting on a window sill or shelf! Just darling!

Second, pop on over to Jane's Fabrics and Quilts to check out her birthday giveaway! She is giving away 50, yes that's five-oh, 1930's fat quarters! As if that isn't enough, she is also giving away three patterns! Pretty awesome! Happy Birthday Jane!

An Art Quilt and a Pincushion

So...I was supposed to post something on Tuesday...oops! I have been very busy. I do have a project to share with you though. I have been working on it diligently. I am very pleased with how it turned out. Yes my quilting lines are a little off. No it isn't perfect. As was working on it, I got more and more excited with how it was looking. So without further ado, here is my first mini art quilt:

and a close up:

Also I am very excited to tell you that I won the wonderful blog giveaway over at All in my Cottage here is the darling tea cup pincushion that I won:

Isn't it sweet!! Check out Debbi's etsy shop Marionberry Cottage. She has some of the prettiest, vintagey, feminine things I have seen in a long time.

A quilt give away...

Over at Old Red Barn Co. they are giving away the most gorgeous quilt! Here is a picture of it:

Isn't this the most beautiful quilt you've seen! All you have to do is pop on over to their site and leave a post to be entered in the contest! There are ways to get extra entries too, so check it out!

They are also giving away a second and third place prize!