Mini Quilt Tutorial on Flickr

I have posted my mini quilt tutorial on Flicker!

The Apron Family Does Thanksgiving

OK, so I didn't plan it this way but I ended up getting most of the photos of Thanksgiving with everyone in aprons!

I "stole" this one from my shop and I love it. My new favorite apron.

I made the one my Mom has on for her last year. Dad has a man apron on, factory made. I think I need to make him one. Hubby didn't have an apron on so he didn't make it in the picture! (Notice my Amy Butler curtains there?)


And the star of the day! A twenty pounder, it was YUMMY.


I've been whining for years that I don't have a dining room, wah, wah, wah, but decided not to let that stop me from inviting my parents, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, to Thanksgiving. Wow. I didn't realize that I always just expect Mom to cook. Silly me. Mom was very appreciative. Especially when she left all the dishes in the sink, HA.

What was really fun was first, getting out my great-grandmother's china! It is beautiful and I'm not sure how they ate back in the early 1900's but there are about 5 different plate sizes and the same with bowls. And there must be 12 of each. I also have her crystal which is etched with flowers. It's SO pretty and I love to think about how it's been passed down through so many generations.

Then, my Dad brought a DVD that he made from old slides taken before I was born up to about the time I was 6 years old. They were amazing! The color and everything made them look like new photos. My mother was 21 when she had me and at 29 had 4 children already. And looked like she was 12 at the same time. Seeing photos of my relatives who are in their 70s and 80s back when they were 30, amazing. So much fun. Not to mention my obsession with all things 50s and 60s; the clothes, hair, decor, the old cars (which my father pointed out were NEW to them!). OH, and the furniture. We kept pointing out "I have that cabinet!" "Remember that sofa? Who has that now?" Memories....

I wish I could post some of the photos but I don't have them.... yet. In many of the photos where my mother was dressed to the nines in a long dress to go to some fancy party she said "OH, I MADE THAT DRESS! And that one, too!"

The legacy of sewing lives on. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

More Munki Munki Madness

I'm finally going to dig into my stash of Munki Munki jammy scraps to make some patchwork squares which will become sachets for a friend's order. It's a little scary actually taking the blade to these HTF fabrics but I hope I can do it. The one with the camper vans is paired with lovely linen fabrics that I already had and can't believe how well they match the colors!

The dogs looks fantastic with some scraps of Essex linen/cotton blend.


And here are some of my other delicious Munki fabrics waiting to be made into something fabulous. The one on top is my current favorite and I just succumbed to buying a quarter of a jammy leg on Etsy to get more! It's like drugs, you get a little and then....


And finally, I scored some flannel Munki Munki at Marshall's yesterday in the way of Holiday or Christmas sweater PJs. These will be used with my other flannels from other PJs and I got enough to share in my shop as well!


Now if I can only carve out some time to sew!

Snow Day

Well, Denver got a dumping of snow this week so I thought I would share my keeshond playing in the snow.



If you can't view the video, try accessing it on Facebook here.

Mini Quilt Tutorial and Quilt A Long

I am leading a mini quilt (24 x 36) quilt a long on a fabric forum, the Fabric Obsession. The Fabric Obsession is a community of fabric lovers and we have a fabric coop as well as sewing challenges. If you are interested in following along, go HERE and sign up for a free membership. The quilt a long is in the forum folder called Sewing Challenges, then Mini Quilt a Long.

It uses charm squares with sashing and is a basic pattern that I designed but it's very simple. I made a larger version recently:



Download basic quilt instructions here.

Here's a sneak peak of what I have so far:

New Stuff

OK, so I had my lunch hour free and I needed a break so I thought I would just hop on over to Hobby Lobby, conveniently located around the corner from my office, and see if they had any curtain lining fabric for a project I have in mind. Oddly enough, some things jumped into my arms while I was there. Very strange.



Kona cotton was on sale and I've been wanting to do this for awhile, just buy a bunch of colors for applique and other projects I don't quite have planned yet. So here you see some of my new friends: tangerine, canary, sour apple, jade, carnation, red and lagoon. It's quite an effort to carry all the bolts to the cutting table and then ask for only 1/2 yard each. But they are so nice there. The people behind me weren't so happy though. Actually, they were fine. Who wouldn't want to stay longer in a fabric department? OH and it was 30% off.



Then I wandered into the embroidery area and MORE things jumped into my arms! Like, this new DMC embroidery floss line called Light Effects. Super cool colors that shimmer and shine. There was this nifty sign that said "DMC Floss 35 cent each" so I thought I would splurge on seven different colors. Apparently, the Light Effects are NOT part of that 35 cents thing, they were $1.99 each, not bad but when you're impulse buying....

OH, and if you're thinking "Well, that's not a lot of embroidery floss." I already have quite the collection at home. Here's just one of my collections.



It's Friday so over the weekend I hope to be creative. I have a pillow to make for a swap (and some of the Kona color might be used in applique for that one), a quilt a long to plan and a zillion other projects in mind, including cleaning the bathroom.

Red Letter Day Quilts

Wow, I forgot to share the finished Red Letter Day quilt! Elizabeth House designs the cutest fabrics! First Lizzy Dish and then Red Letter Day. I discovered Red Letter Day when I saw this photo on Flickr of a WIP quilt and I fell in love and HAD to find the fabric. I made up a pattern that was really simple and ended up having enough squares to make two quilts and here they are.

Front:


Back:


Front of quilt 2:


Back is ivory flannel:


Andover has a FREE quilt pattern for this fabric called Marble Champ. She has a tutorial on her blog for doing the circles. It's really cute.

OH and don't forget to check out the Flickr group for Red Letter Day!

And now for a BIG SECRET. My favorite bargain bin website for designer fabric has two of the duck prints for $4.00 a yard right now! (to find it, go to the category "New Andover 10/17/09")