How exciting!

More about these quilts on this post.

Twin gifts

Our friends Ella and Zoe are turning 5 next week, and their Rainbow Birthday Party is today!  We met in an Early Childhood/Family Education class when they were 2 and my girls were 3.  Their mom is just about the sweetest person in the world, and it has been such fun to compare notes on being a mom of twin girls.

So I knew I wanted to make something really special for their birthday.
Here is what I came up with!

"Ruby Lou" doll pattern can be found at Sew Much Ado

Twin Rainbow Quilts
My own creation, but was inspired by this quilt I found on flickr.

Close up of the pebble quilting.
Fun to do, and I LOVE how it turned out!

Soft minky dots for the backing.

One skirt just wouldn't be enough, would it?
A girl needs a change of clothing!

These little dolls were a really fun project, and I had lots of help along the way from my twins, complete with planning how they wanted their dolls to look -- I promised to make them each one after these gifts were finished!  It turns out that 5 year old fingers are perfect for stuffing those narrow arms and legs.  And it was really fun to see the amazed look on their faces after I sewed the heads together and then turned them inside out - it was like the dolls came alive!  The only thing that I would change about the pattern is to embroider the faces first -- this seemed much easier, rather than waiting until the end and having to bury the embroidery knots up in the hairline somewhere.  I also lined the face and the body with interfacing prior to doing the embroidery.  And the faces/arms/legs are just a neutral Kona cotton, not muslin as the pattern suggests.

Works in Progress Wednesday

Does anyone feel like there are not enough hours in the day?!  Especially between the kids' bedtime and my bedtime -- I wish I was one of those people who only needed 5 hours of sleep.  I could get some serious sewing done in those extra 3 hours.

But anyway, I have made some progress this week.  I have 6 of 9 blocks done for the Supernova Quilt Along at Freshly Pieced.  And I love, love, love these blocks so far.  I have lots of fabric left, too (I started with a fat eighth bundle), so it's tempting to make the quilt larger than just 9 blocks.  Am I crazy?  (my husband would say yes!)

I'm starting to think about the Pretty Little Pouch Swap -- I'd like to do something with linen, maybe with hand quilting or embroidery, too.  I made this little button tree, to try out an idea for the "final" pouch.  I saw something like this on a pouch on flickr, and loved it.  Holly helped me arrange all the buttons, which she loved.  Not sure if I'll actually do button trees on the pouch for the swap, though -- maybe embroider or quilt trees instead?!  We'll see!  I'm going to make a couple of pouches for gifts for the girls' Sunday School teachers, too, as an end of year thank-you.  This was a fun project to work on with a little helper.

I'm also working on the Sis Boom Dress Sew Along.  After seeing how cute Sara looked in this dress, I couldn't resist joining in on this sew along, too.  Not that I need a sleeveless dress, in April, in Minnesota!  Usually for Easter we end up wearing long sleeved sweaters! But so far the pattern has been very easy to follow, and Sara wrote that she finished her dress in a little over 3 hours.  So finishing it up is tomorrow night's project!

Progress so far (as my kids would say, "easy peasy lemon squeezy!")

If all goes well with the olive/pink dots, in terms of how the dress fits, I'll probably turn that one into a tunic (like Kim did, here), and then make the dress (again) out of the pink Amy Butler fabric, above.

Still working on hand quilting this one.
It's slow going, but I love it.

A new project I started this week,
an idea I had for a quilt for Lexi's bed.
She's still sleeping under her Christmas quilt!

And finally, I'm nearly finished with birthday gifts for twins Ella and Zoe, who are turning 5 on Saturday.  My little artists and I have had lots of fun working on these gifts together. I'll share pictures on Saturday, after their party!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced:

do. Good Stitches

 I finished up my blocks for April for the Peace Circle of do. Good Stitches.

The tutorial for this block is from Elizabeth's blog Don't Call Me Betsy.

I'm so happy to be part of this circle.  It was really fun to get to learn to make a new block, and then to only have to make 2 blocks, not a whole quilt!  I'll get them in the mail to Katie this week, and will be waiting to see how she puts all of our squares together and quilts them.

My month to do the planning and quilting is August, and I can't wait -- I have lots of ideas for what type of quilt to make -- picking just one will be difficult!

 Linking up to Megan's blog here:

Works in Progress Wednesday

I finished my biggest, most challenging work in progress this week --

organizing and cleaning my sewing space!

What a project!

Things really got out of control when I went digging through all my scraps to organize colors for the Bottled Rainbows Quilt Along.  But it was probably in need of cleaning even before that.  It's a small space, which functions as my sewing room, our office, and guest bedroom.  It has been (but will no longer be!) a dumping ground for everything that doesn't have it's own space. 

Organizing this bookshelf took awhile!

But I love how it looks, how everything is in sight and easy to find.

(I moved the books that used to live here to the living room a few years ago.)

In this corner I added some hooks,

and stashed small things on this little antique shelf.

The red color doesn't fit this room well,

so it will likely get a coat of spray paint when the weather warms up.

My embroidery hoops are all from thrift stores and antique sales.

The bags hold knitting projects in various stages of completion.

(The door to the closet will remain closed - it's still a little messy in there!)

I owe a HUGE thank you to Rachel for coming up with this Bottled Rainbows idea.
I love the way the scraps look in my Grandma's old canning jars.
More about the colorful string quilt here.

My sewing table, purchased at an antique sale.  It folds up when we have guests.
For big quilting projects, I move the sewing machine to the dining room table.

The empty space behind the sewing machine
is reserved for my Bottled Rainbows quilt.

 The day bed has a trundle hidden underneath, which is great for guests, but takes up nearly all the floor space when it is pulled out.  The daybed also serves as my design wall, and is a cozy space to curl up and finish binding a quilt while watching movies.

The kitchen counter often becomes a mini ironing/trimming station -
there just isn't room for this in my sewing space!

It feels SO GOOD to have this done!

Now it's back to work on other things, like Lee's Supernova Quilt Along:

and this pillow top for our kitchen bench:

More Bottled Rainbow blocks, ready to go!

and a top secret project that I've been working on -- birthday gifts for my friend's twin girls who are turning five this month.  Other projects have taken a back burner to this one!

Linking up to:

Pretty Little Pouch Swap

I decided to join in on the Pretty Little Pouch Swap on Flickr.
Here is the mosaic I made for inspiration:

This was my first try at making a mosaic of photos.

I used bighugelabs.com -- and it was easy!

The pouch swap sign up is open until April 7th,

to sign up click here.

Lexi's Room

Have you seen this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew for Sprocket Pillows?
As soon as I saw these pillows, I couldn't wait to make one (or 2)!


I have a bunch of Kona solids left over from the Bottled Rainbows Quilt Along, and this was the perfect little project to use some of it! 


This tutorial is so nicely done.  Great photos and instructions.


I couldn't get the templates to print to the right size, though, so I just used my 30 degree triangle ruler, and cut 7 1/2 inch wedges.

Inspiration for the pillow, Lexi's rug
(from Land of Nod a few years ago)

Lexi's Reading Nook

Balloons on the back side

The chair in Lexi's room is an old chair my parents had in our living room when I was growing up.  It's super comfy!  I had planned to have it recovered, but the yellow (probably was known as harvest gold, or something like that in the 70's!) actually fits in ok in this Rainbow Lover's bedroom.


The quilt on the back of the chair was made by my lovely and talented friend Amber, as a baby gift.  The sheep (aka Marshmallow) is from this tutorial at Purl Bee.  The girls and I are planning to make a few more of these for Easter gifts -- it's a super fun, easy, and kid friendly project (I just use fleece or soft minky fabric instead of wool, as the tutorial suggests!).

Of course, Holly needed one, too!

Linking up to: