I found this alphabet panel at Hearts and Hands Quilt Shop, and thought of the two youngest little girls in our family.  Sophia is Bill's Great Granddaughter, lives in Massachusetts, she is 1 year and 8 months. She will receive this at Christmas from me and her Papa.
I made it into a growth chart, thus the hanger that reads "I'm This Big".  Her name was  made using the letters from AccuQuilt Go die fabric cutting system. I appliqued it to the top.  The large yellow rectangle at the bottom says "Now I've said my ABC's tell  me what you think of me'.  I wanted to add a fabric tape measure, but couldn't find one to buy so I had to make one out of Twill tape, used the 9mm sewing stitch width of my Bernina 830 machine to make the numbers.
I am going to make one for Leona as well. She will be two this December 2nd, and is growing like a weed.  I am really thankful for the age of technology we live in so that I can use Skype to have video conference calls with family and friends.

According to Amelia- who is almost 6yrs old, she is now a BIG girl and her Little girl quilt doesn't work for her now....so Gramma Jackie was asked, to make a BIG GIRL quilt. 
Here it is, taken from a Modern Quilt design and the use of bright colors this is a 58"x79" quilt, pieced and quilted by me.  Since her birthday is coming up along with Christmas I guess it is going to be mailed later this month.  I am not able to make everyone a quilt every year, but am attempting to complete the families (I have 6 children and 15 grandchildren) as I get around to it.  Wish me luck and a long life so that I have time to complete one for each of them. 

The Holidays approach earlier each year

Amazing how quickly the years pass.  Bill, my husband says that "we have already done everything so time moves faster"....not so sure we have done EVERYTHING....  I still have lots of fabric to use.

This piece is an OESD design titled "Magic In The Air".  This is an applique and embroidery design.
It measures 24x28" (when this photo was taken the final border hadn't been applied, there is now a Red border. I forgot to take a photo of it before I took it to Hearts and Hands Quilt Shop.  I will be teaching this in a class there In December.

A day at home and alone with my sewing area/machine

It is so great to have a day all to one's self....they are far and few between, but today was one of them.

I decided to accomplish at least one thing with several projects underway and just waiting for some work to be done on them. 

A round table cloth to be used in the home of Nancy and Larry, this is the fabrics used in their wall hanging 'Sushi 2'.  I don't have it quilted yet but today I got the final seam and added the center circle with some decorative stitching and quilting this will be an awesome addition to their dining area....pattern from 'Quilts without Borders'. 
It looks like the pieces aren't together in the correct order, but it is hanging on my design wall and the bottom is hanging together so the two yellows look like there should be more, and there is,,,,is actually is put together perfectly.  I named it 'Sunrise in AZ'.  This is a 38" round table cloth.

BeDazzled Star is an embroidered and pieced wall hanging.  It was designed and digitized for machine embroidery by Sarah Vedeler of Scottsdale, AZ.  I saw her completed quilt last summer and just had to make one of my own. 
I used a deep purple background for all 16 of the blocks.  This quilt was started last August, 2011.  I had it quilted by professional longarm quilter-Nina Keck of Hearts and Hands quilts. I will finish some decorative stitches in the center of the salmon/yellow sashing. I will then bind the wallhanging and affix a sleeve in some manner so that it can be hung on the wall, but I may use it on my round dinner table.
The piece is 58" in diameter, there are 16 individual embroidered and appliqued blocks. Each block took me an average of 4hr 50min to complete.  I used 12 different colors of threads, and most of those threads required 2 spools to be used. Needless to say there are more than 1 million stitches in the project in just embroidery.  But I love it and am very proud of it.
Today I trimmed it up and am prepared to do the decorative stitches and binding soon.

Another project that I wanted to try today was a new design I just purchased entitled "Magic in the Air".  I did the cutest little snowman angel.  I used metallic gold thread for his wings and halo.  When all the blocks are completed it is a very cute and lovely Christmas quilt/wall hanging....depending on someone's choice of use.It is stitched onto a deep royal purple fabric.  I am feeling purple these days it seems.....

Isn't he cute?

And finally, but actually my first action of the day was to put a border on my 'Mystery
Quilt' that was designed by Jean Biddick and Jo Cady-Bull, they were the quilt artists on our Alaska Quilt Retreat at Sea quilting cruise this last June.  Wonderful time.  So here is the delicious fabric I found and I think it adds just the right spark.                   
                                                                               
   

with a portion of the final quilt top... now to quilt and bind it in the next few days (I hope)



What did you do today?

Mystery Quilt Weekend

Friday afternoon 7/20/12

Friday evening 7/20/12

And so we began

Since the kit was cut we knew we would be able to get  a lot of sewing done.  Michelle's children were gone for the weekend, and when we stopped for dinner we had put together the first 4 clues



Saturday- worked on the mystery quilt until about 11:30am. Then we drove to Gilbert to attend the Phoenix chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild.  We left there around 3:30 to get home before the afternoon monsoon storm (actually today was  a big dust storm). Worked until late Saturday evening and VOILA!!!!

Michelle's is Black/White with Red accents
My quilt colors are Purple, lavendar and Hot Pink accents


Enough sewing for the night.





 Sunday we woke early and went to the airport to pick up Rachel, she was coming home from a visit to Florida. We had breakfast, went to the fabric shop and then returned to Michelle's to start our quest to finish the top of our quilts.

When the other two kids came home about noon- Rachel, Marshel and Kellee were taught to use the sewing machine and do straight stitching- we made each of them some super sized pillowcases.  They did a good job and I was able to spend some time with each of them individually.  Here are photos of their final projects.

Marshel

 and Kellee

           A fun and successful weekend in July

I finished the top of my quilt....  Michelle was busy finishing her borders when I left her home, will post her photo when she sends it to me.... until then, why not plan your own weekend family quilt weekend and see how excited the kids get when they too can show their creative side (by the way, each of the kids chose their own fabric for their pillow covers).
Here is a photo of Michelle's finished top....now to the quilting and binding ....

                     


                                

One would think I have been 'unbusy' due to my lack of blogging, however this is not the case.  I have been extremely busy and productive, just nothing physical to show for it... I have two items to share today.

The Bed Runner - design found in 'Make your Bed' is the Irish Rose Chain I did it in chocolate and cream colored batik, it is two fabric choices.

I purchased some Pashmina shawls on my cruise earlier this year, and decided they needed a bit of embellishment- this is one of them, more techniques on them to do as I learn more.

The One That Got Away

I fell in love with this applique embroidered design last summer while visiting Alaska, on our Quilt Retreat at Sea trip. It is a Lunch Box design. Bill and Mark went fly fishing while Barbara and I went to the quilt shop, imagine that!

Anyway, I decided to make this wall hanging for Bill so he could always remember the fun he had with 'The one that got away'.