MMMRR Round 2 Sneak Peek

Hi all!  Sorry for the long time between posts - things have been crazy here and my head hasn't been in the game (or on my shoulders sometimes) for the past few weeks.  I did find some time to get into my sewing room though and cranked out the borders for my Modern Mini Mystery Round Robin group.  I had fun doing them!  The first border was super stretchy so I needed something to stabilize it so I went with the strips to help keep it from changing shape everytime I looked at it.  I think the design mirrors the middle block a little and like I said, I had fun designing and sewing them up.

Now its off to the next person and I am awaiting the arrival of my next round.

Here's a little Sandy Annie love.

 

woof woof meow!

A little fun

Hi hi! 

Just had to post this when I saw it on Bea's blog this morning.

#1 caught me and I think I have to do all of them now!

 Check out B's newest recipes too - she's got soup and pizza dough.  Yummy warm recipes for the cool weather outside right now.

And, a little Bug love.

see kate sew Envelope Clutch

Hi hi!

I was reading up at Amy's Crafty Shenanigans today and she showed off her Calypso Envelope Clutch.  When she mentioned that it was a pattern from see kate sew, I clicked over and found Kate had a flikr group with photos from folks who've made up her pattern.

So, I needed a quick project that I could do - I am tired of chain piecing and this was a fun break.  I printed out the pattern and dug out a couple of fat quarters and enough fusible to fit the pattern (barely).  Here's my finished clutch without a button/closure.

 And the inside is a simple cream that matched the swirly asian print that I picked as my outer fabric.

Then, since I don't do button holes, yet, I decided I would try to do something different and used the scraps from my liner to whip up a little fabric flower.

What do you think?  I am thinking I should make a couple more - maybe in a coral and yellow, and put all three on the flap.  Then a magnetic closure.  What do you think?

Here's a little Lolly love.

woof woof meow

FNSI and Modern Mini Mystery Peek

Hi hi!

Last Friday Josh was in Portland so I signed up for FNSI at Handmade by Heidi and set to work!  I didn't get anything finished, but I did finish cutting a project, almost finished another (needed more fabric) and started designing my MMMRR border.

I finished cutting up Baby Jackson's fabric (and I am still drooling over it)

I started cutting up the fabric for the Costa Maya quilt, but ran out of one of the fabrics so I had to order more.  Luckily I found some, Children at Play by Sarah Jane came out in 2011 and the flannel was even harder to find.  But - Aspen Fabrics had a yard left and I snatched it up!

Then, I started designing the borders for my first round of the Modern Mini Mystery Round Robin going on with Quilts From My Crayon Box.  I finished it tonight, so here are some photos.

Just photos, I don't want to give too much away!

 

 

And, a little Doodle love:

woof woof meow!

Quilt U Be Mine

Reveal Day is here!  And I am so excited to show off what the lovely ladies of my groups did with my center block!

First off, I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to Michele at Quilts From My Crayon Box for putting the Mini Mystery Row Robin together, keeping track of all of us, and for providing awesome support to those of us who had mini crises of what to do!  She rocks and I am so happy to be part of this Row Robin!

I was in two groups, since I am a glutton for punishment and decided, "Hey, its almost the holidays and I will be gone for at least a week in November and December.  Why not commit to TWO groups when I have never done something like this before?  How hard could it be?"  Yeah - maybe if I didn't care what I put out could I get things whipped out every month the next day, but I am too picky and not skilled enough yet.  I agonized over some of them!  So many ideas and only a month (or two weeks if you take into account that I had two blocks a month) to do each!  Gahhhh!  But, in the end, I had a blast and both of my groups were full of ladies that are totally awesome.

I had a few borders that I did that were my favorites, most I didn't for some reason take pictures of, but the last three I did get snaps of.  Here is the post for the pictures I did end up snapping.

My first group was Group 4:

Vicky

Rachel

Renae

Me

Here is what they came up with:

Isn't that too cool?!?!

My second group was Group 6:

Melinda

Terrie

Vicki

Me

And here is what they did with my second block:

Hee hee - happy dance here!!!

I sent out the same block to both groups - very different results no?  These ladies are fabulous!  I can't wait to see their tops revealed on their blogs and over at Your Crayon Box, the blog Michele has set up for those who don't have blogs to share their tops too.  So, go here to Michele's blog for the linky party and here for the non-bloggers' posts and share the bloggy love, it is Valentine's Day!

woof woof meow

A finish - Baby Henry's Quilt

Yay - this was a fun project!  Josh's cousins had their second child - a boy - in October and when I heard they were expecting, off I went to find a quilt to make for them.  Then, Melissa Corry blogged about her Snuggly Squares II baby quilt.  I knew it was the pattern I wanted to try for this baby quilt.  I scrounged around on the web and found a (very hard to find) Lily & Will II layer cake at Christa Quilts!.  I ordered it and when it got here, I was soooo excited.  So excited, it sat. And sat.  And sat.

Then, when I got to it, the cutting and piecing went really fast.  Then, it sat again.  When it is nice outside, I usually stay at home, go hiking, take the dogs to the river, ride my motorcycle.  So, the quilt top sat on the bed in the guest bedroom for months.  Molly was nice enough to sneak into the room when I could catch her and hold down the quilt top for me.  Sweet child...

Before I finally got to Tigard to use the Gammill, I sketched out what I wanted to do - bunnies, flowers and vines, to mimic the fabric patterns.  I found a bunny outline at Pixabella and sketched them in the centers of the single-piece blocks. 

The flowers went into the pieced-center blocks.

The vines went around the outside of each block and around the border of the quilt.

It went on the machine really easily - normally my lines are crooked as sin!

If I didn't live alone I would think someone else sewed the top for me ;o)

After I took it home, bound it and washed it, I took it over to my MIL's and asked for her to take some photos for me.  The quilting shows up pretty well on the back, but it doesn't photograph very well in the sun.

The front turned out great and Liz's photography made it look even better!

I loved working on this quilt and working on my skills with it.  I hope Baby Henry loves it just as much!

woof woof meow

QUBM and MMMRR peeks

Hi hi!  I just sent off the last rounds of the Quilt U Be Mine Round Robin to my two groups.  I had a blast doing all the rows!  I can't wait to see the reveal on Valentine's Day.  I also can't wait to see my two mini quilts.  I sent off the exact same block to both groups so it will be interesting to see what the differences are in each (or similiarities?).

For some reason I only took pictures of the last two additions that I made.  By far my three favorites though!  The first is a Dresden fan row.  Didn't get enough of the Dresdens when I did Dare to Dresden.

The second and third are both paper pieced rows.  They took me most of the weekend to do, but I still really liked doing them and am very excited for the lady who gets them - I could frame them and put them on my wall by themselves!

 

I am also sending off my center block for the Modern Mini Mystery Round Robin 2013.  I've been staring at a box of batiks from my Safari Quilt that I dug out of the closet a few weeks ago.  When I saw the pictures that Heidi over at Fabric Mutt took at the Road To California Quilt Show, I was inspired by one of the quilts to make my wonky centered block.  And those batiks were calling to me, and the giraffe fabric was REALLY screaming at me.  This is what came out.  I love it!

I hope the other ladies in my group enjoy working with it - I can't wait to see what happens to this one too :o)  Off to work on the baby quilt for my sister in law - lucky baby, all these great batiks, I want it!  I'll just settle for being the first to drool on it instead ;o).

woof woof meow