Birthday boy!

Today is my little boy's third birthday! I can hardly believe it.


We celebrated the event yesterday by inviting over family and having snacks and cupcakes.


Mmmm... cupcakes.

And, of course, there were many gifts, including this one:


A quilt made by mama!


My little dude loves Maisy Mouse. I love the bright, happy colors, simple art, and sweet stories about Maisy and her friends. When I saw this beautiful kit being offered by the Fat Quarter Shop, it was an easy decision. The kit included the pattern and all of the fabrics needed for the top and binding. I purchased the backing fabric separately (it is also from Andover's Maisy collection).


I started working on it at the quilt retreat in November, and finished it last Friday evening. It was washed and ready to go for the party on Sunday. I was a little nervous about washing it, because none of the fabrics (or the batting) had been prewashed. Usually, I am a prewash fanatic, but as the kit suggested not to prewash, I didn't. Fortunately, everything washed beautifully with no bleeding. The quilt has a lovely, comfy crinkled look to it too!


I'm really pleased with how the quilting turned out. In the center, I did a long, horizontal stipple in the "sky" areas, outlined and then stippled the house, and did a swirl in the sun. Then I did an all-over freemotion design in the outside borders that involved stars and loops (inspired by a quilt I saw on Quilt Hollow's blog recently).


I just love the backing fabric. So cool!


And the label.

I even made a little pillowcase to go with it:



Happy Birthday, little dude!!!! Mama loves you. :)

To the theme of "Rawhide"

Bindin', bindin', bindin'
Though your fingers are swollen
Keep that needle goin'
'Til it's done!


Sigh... the things that work their way into my brain sometimes.

Weekend projects

I managed to keep myself pretty busy this last weekend working on a few different projects...


On Saturday morning, my husband declared that I needed to make some new coasters for game night that night. So I did! These are the same design I made for gifts over the holidays, but I thought I'd share a picture since I never manged to get any close-up ones of the others. The pattern is from the wonderful book, Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, by Joelle Hoverson.


On Sunday, I completed work on the new Project Linus top I started last week at the PL workshop I attended. It's another one made from the Roll o' Evelyn challenge fabric (which I have a ton more of, so there will be still more projects to come!). I have ideas on how I want to quilt it so I'm even excited about getting it basted (but first, I need a back).


Another item checked off the list: cutting all of my Paintbox Quilt Along fabrics. Now I'm ready to stitch up some blocks!


And then I finally started quilting the Maisy quilt for my son. Woo hoo! Hopefully, I'll be able to get the quilting done in the next couple days. I'd really like to have this ready to give to him on his birthday next week.

Phew! Listing it all out like this makes me feel like I accomplished a lot. Yay for productive weekends!

Holiday weekend

This last week has just flown by! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday-- a wonderful opportunity to spend time with friends and family and have LOTS of fantabulous feasting. We had 12 people at our tables last week, and both the food and the laughter were plentiful. I am so bummed that I failed to take any pictures! But, I was very busy in the kitchen and by the time all the food was out and ready, the only thing on my mind was getting off my feet and eating.

After all of the cooking, I took it easy over the weekend. There were lots of leftovers, and even a little crafting. One thing I'm really happy to have done is prep work for quilting Felix's baby quilt. I got it marked and basted. Yay! Now I just need to get it quilted (hopefully, soon!).

I also managed to finally get going on some sashing in my Jane Stickle quilt.


It's not much, but it's a start. Six blocks connected now!

Also completed now is the center of the "My Friend, Maisy" quilt:


I'm loving this bright and happy quilt! And with the center completed, I can now put the top together. Hopefully I'll be able to work on that this weekend. My goal is to get this one finished for the Boy in time for Christmas.

Quilt retreat!

This last weekend, Evelyn and I (along with 60 other ladies) spent three days at the Falls Creek Conference Center for a quilt retreat hosted by Karen Snyder.

It was awesome!!! So awesome that I failed to take any time out to take pictures. But, I can tell you that the retreat center was beautiful (albeit a little stormy), the food was plentiful (and tasty), the ladies were all welcoming and friendly and fabulous, and having nearly 3 days to just sit and sew was amazing.

Evelyn finally reminded me that pictures were pretty nice for blogs, and helped me take a couple at the very end so that I can at least show you what I managed to accomplish.


I spent the majority of my time (all but about 3 hours!) working on my version of the "Prairie Pinwheels" quilt (from McCall's Quilting, August 2008). I managed to complete 33 blocks, which means I now have all of the 48 blocks required to make the quilt. Woo hoo! Evelyn took this picture of me standing in front my blocks. The design wall wasn't big enough to hang all of them, so there are also few sitting in the chair nearby. I hadn't planned on working on this quilt the entire time, but I just found myself wanting to get the blocks DONE. So I kept going until they were all completed. Hopefully, I'll be able to start putting them together soon.

Needing a little break from the pinwheel blocks, I took a time-out to participate in a retreat project that Karen put together. She requested that we each bring two half-yard pieces of ugly fabric. She took them all and then randomly drew names. We each received a bag pattern and got to go up and choose two pieces from the pile that we could use to make our "ugly bags".


This is my completed bag. It took me just a little more than an hour to put together, and was a nice respite from the grind of pinwheels. And the bag isn't bad at all!

More pinwheels followed. Finally, on Sunday morning, the last pinwheels was complete. With only a couple of hours left before we planned to head home, I decided to get a start on the "My Friend Maisy" quilt.


It was a huge joy to be working on these after spending the entire weekend on pinwheel blocks. And they were so quick in comparison! This is going to be a very happy quilt.

On the way home from retreat, we made a stop at Sisters Fabric Shop in Chehalis. They had a lot of fabric packed into that little store! It was actually a little overwhelming. But, I managed to come away with a little something:


The brown is going to be for binding Felix's quilt (assuming I ever get it started!), the peachy floral is for my last Autumn House block (so I can make it match its mis-cut opposite block), and the green is for my Jane quilt (because I just couldn't resist!).

I also wanted to show you this:


The day before I left for the retreat, I took a little time and made a portable ironing station for myself, a la the fabulous twiddletails. I bought a TV tray at Target for about $9 and transformed it following Anina's instructions. It was a super-quick project (less than an hour!), and I was wildly grateful that I had it at retreat. I was able to just stay at my spot and do all the pressing I needed right there. I cannot even contemplate how much time it saved me to not have to get up and go to an ironing station every time I needed to press. And I think it will be just as helpful at home.

My first-ever retreat was amazing fun! Though I wasn't as productive as I had hoped (those pinwheels took a lot longer than I had hoped!), I feel like I really got a lot done. I got to hang out with my friend and meet some amazing ladies. I got to sew. And I can't wait until I can do it all again!

Frenetic packing

Tomorrow, Evelyn and I head out for our three day quilt retreat! Woo hoo! I've spent the last couple days frantically trying to put together everything I need/want to take with me. Making lists, checking things off, stacking stuff in a corner... and finally (I think!), all is ready to pack in the car tomorrow morning.

Here are the projects I've decided to bring along:

• Prairie Pinwheels-- What was to be a Christmas gift last year is coming out from the closet in hopes of becoming a gift this year. We'll see how it goes.


• Felix's Baby Quilt-- I can't believe he's already 6 weeks old! I gotta get this baby quilt going!


• Parallel Paths-- this is a Project Linus quilt that I've had cut for a couple of months, but haven't started.


• Jane Stickle Quilt-- I'm bringing along a bag of blocks. Who knows? Maybe some of them will have some sashing by the end of the weekend.


• Maisy Quilt-- I have yet to make a quilt for my son. (I know... bad, mama, bad!!!) He loves Maisy the Mouse. When I saw that Andover Fabrics had a new collection featuring Maisy, and that the Fat Quarter Shop actually had a kit featuring all of the fabrics, it just seemed like fate and I immediately ordered one. Tonight I cut it all out and I hope to get the top put together this weekend. This one is my priority project, I think.

With all that, I suspect I'll have plenty to keep me busy this weekend. And who knows? Maybe I'll even get some stuff done!