iPad Case

What a wonderful way to carry this fun toy!

Faith's iPad tutorial is the best!

The black printed fabric is from Ikea,

and I love how it looks with the orange and green dots.

I whipped this up before a trip a few weeks ago.

The night before the trip, I hadn't even started packing --

but I just HAD to finish this one last project.

I gave myself until 9pm to finish it,

figuring that I could pack from 9-10pm.

It was done by 9:06!

Love it!

Linking up to:

Holly's Christmas Quilt

Holly's Christmas Quilt

(finished just in time to snuggle with it on Christmas eve, whew!)

She said it was "the best gift ever, Mommy!"

I jammed my right thumb (hugely swollen, black & blue!)

at a workout class the day after I finished this quilt top.

So free motion quilting was out of the question.

Instead I quilted "organic" (ie not so straight) lines every 1-2 inches.

I  love the way it looks!  

The pattern is Posh by Chez Moi (free!), found here.

The fabrics are from the Be Merry collection by Riley Blake.

As I look at these photos, I am thinking that it's time for a new camera.

(and my birthday is next week!)

After Christmas my husband and I were lamenting so many "missed" moments -- because so many of our photos are out of focus or over exposed.  Our new, expensive SLR camera isn't so new anymore!  We purchased it prior to my brother's wedding -- over 8 years ago -- and we've taken thousands and thousands of pictures with it.  Now about half of the time it gives me an error message (and won't shoot at all), and 50-75% of my photos are blurry.  So frustrating! 

This photo, for example, is probably our best family Christmas photo.

It makes me so sad that it's so blurry!

(although I have to say it's not quite as noticeable how bad it is within a blog!)

I would love any advice on cameras - do you love yours?

Linking up to:

and Amanda Jean's Finish it up Friday!

Works in Progress, 1.4.12

I am so tired of sewing with Christmas fabrics. 

So much so, that I think I went a little overboard

in terms of starting new projects this week.

This is what my sewing desk looks like:

(fabrics in process of becoming a Juice Boxes quilt)

This is how the floor looks:

(random assortment, using up scraps)

I plan to keep sashing these, log cabin style,

until they're big enough to make into a baby quilt.

And this is the hallway to our bedroom:

The girls wanted to have a New Year's art show--

they were starting to tape pictures all over the kitchen,

but I suggested that we move to the hallway--

more like a gallery, don't you think?

They were thrilled when I added 2 quilt blocks to the art show/contest.

They are hilarious judges --

 there were many winners in this art show, complete with hugs as prizes.

What do you think of this block?

I've been playing around with scraps, trying to get ideas for a block for the 4X5 bee (blocks are due soon!), and ideas for scrappy blocks.  One of my goals for 2012 is to use my current fabrics, scraps and all, before buying anything new (except for solids, of course, and maybe some Flea Market Fancy when it is re-released).

Linking up to:

Quilts of 2011

(not yet quilted -- with luck, I will finish hand quilting this in 2012!)

(not yet quilted -- another 2012 project!)

Whew!

After sorting through all of these photos, I'm tired!

And I'm wondering how in the world I did this much quilting this year?!?!

(and thinking that I must be a bit crazy!)

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Less than one week until Christmas . . . .

I'm planning to finish up a few more of these

(free pattern at Happy Zombie)

and these!

(tutorial by Pink Penguin)

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Another tree skirt

(free pattern at Tall Grass Prairie Studio)

This tree skirt has been in progress for a long time.

It's hard to give someone a tree skirt as a gift -- 

giving it at Christmas doesn't seem to make sense,

because then they have to wait until next year to use it.

My plan was to give this to my sister-in-law at Thanksgiving time,

but I didn't quite get it finished!

But now it's done, and I'm going to mail it soon!!!! --

so that they can enjoy it for at least a few days

before they take their Christmas tree down.

Many years ago my sister-in-law asked me to make a tree skirt

for her family out of some old flannel sheets.

While I know that tree skirt had meaning for her,

I always felt a little bad that I didn't do

 something more interesting with those sheets.

I was just a beginning quilter at the time!

Being able to give her a much more beautiful

 tree skirt makes me feel so much better.

I hope she loves it!
Linking up to Amanda Jean's finish it up Friday --

wonderful inspiration!

And here are my girls after our Church's Christmas program last weekend.
These two were the only 6 year-olds
to specifically request speaking parts in the play --
they did an amazing job and were SO cute as twin sheep!

Holly's Christmas Quilt

 Off to a good start . . .

The pattern is Posh by Chez Moi (free!), found here.

The fabrics are from the Be Merry collection by Riley Blake.

What a fun little quilt!

I cut out all the pieces in one evening,

and had most of the blocks together in a few days.

Originally I had intended to make this quilt larger,

for a double bed, but I ran out of steam.

It will be a lap quilt (aka cuddle quilt!) instead.

My wonderful quilt holder (husband) was wondering if anyone would notice his gloves . . . . it's much colder out now than the last time he held a quilt for me!

But gloves = no complaining, so we went with it!