This made my day!

I finally got some pictures of my longtime friend's daughter for whom I had made some skirts and a dress for awhile back. She sent me these today after some technical difficulty with her computer, and they certainly put a smile on my face :)She just looks so happy in all of them! This one has to be my favorite though:

Her mom says she just keeps spinning every time she wears it!

Fabric joke and a finished project

Well, I am in "any day now" territory, and scheduled to induce a week from today, on Sept 3rd if she doesn't choose to come sooner. All of my symptoms have gotten much worse the last few days, as well, so I haven't been doing much of anything except rest. I did sandwich and quilt the botany quilt top I had finished awhile ago, but I haven't put the binding on yet.

I did make this table runner, though, and finished it today:

And the other side:

The fabric is Blessings by Brannock and Patek for Moda. I don't even remember if I had mentioned it before or not, but I bought a scrap bag, and it was mostly Blessings, with a few solids. At first, I was a bit disappointed, as it wasn't a collection I would have purchased on my own, but then decided it would make a nice table runner for our kitchen. Now I want to buy some yardage of two of the prints and make coordinating curtains, especially since Shaine makes fun of the country chicken ones I put up ;)

Now time to start on Shaine's Army Memory quilt :) THAT'S one I am really excited about! I will end the post with this joke I got in my email box today that made me giggle:

Buying Fabric

Walking up to a department store's fabric counter, a pretty girl asked, "I want to buy this material for a new dress. How much does it cost?"

"Only one kiss per yard, " replied the smirking male clerk.

"That's fine," replied the girl. "I'll take ten yards."

With expectation and anticipation written all over his face, the clerk hurriedly measured out and wrapped the cloth, then held it out teasingly.

The girl snapped up the package and pointed to a little old man standing beside her. "Grandpa will pay the bill," she smiled.

Baby Blanket

I whipped this up yesterday during naptime for Cullen's newest little cousin!

I did some hand embroidery around the letters to make sure that the Heat N Bond would stay on through a baby pulling on it and the wash, etc. I know it SAYS permanent, but it was already seeming to peel, I guess it doesn't hold on flannel as well as regular cotton fabric!

I used this tutorial from Piece N Quilt, and it was SOOO easy to follow and make. I think the actual cutting took longer than the sewing, since I have such a small cutting mat. I even made a matching burp rag/towel this morning in less than ten minutes.

I also recently found out my little sister is expecting her first child! It is my first niece and Cullen's first cousin on my side of the family. She's only a couple weeks (well, she thinks she's only about a month... I am betting she's a bit farther along than she thinks...). It was quite funny when she told me. She tends to ramble on the phone, and I tend to --accidentally-- tune out sometimes.... All of a sudden I heard "I'm pregnant". She's said that before when she knows I'm zoning out to test me. So I said "No you're not," and she started crying! I felt so bad, and said "You're for real this time? I thought you were just testing me!" And then she started laughing while still crying.... I told her "Whoa, two pregnant chicks on the phone, we need to decide if we are laughing or crying because that's too many emotions for one phone call." Anyway, her husband is thrilled, and she's adjusting to the idea. I can't wait to find out what she is having and make lots of goodies for her!

Big Things This Way!

First of all, Cullen has a new little cousin on the way! Shaine's cousin's wife (confusing, maybe?) is in labor at the moment, and little Liam will be here soon! I am going to try my hand at some embroidery to put his name on a little blanket I want to make for him. I will hopefully have that to show in the next few days. I certainly have enough embroidery floss to choose from:

Also, I finally went ahead and opened an etsy shop! There isn't much in there yet, but hopefully will be someday soon, I seem to have been bitten by the sewing bug and have LOTS of plans/ideas in my head!

Lastly, 44th Street Fabric is having ANOTHER giveaway! How awesome is that? And this time there will be two winners, one receiving 2 Lily & Will charm packs and a quilt pattern, and the other receiving 2 Fandango charm packs and a quilt pattern (thats the one I am hoping for!). Get over there for your chance(s) to win, and good luck!

Finished Baby Quilt

I finished the binding on this baby quilt this morning:

It is one made for my old roommate during our Iraq deployment, who just had her second little girl. She wanted something pink and brown, feminine, but not TOO girly. I think I accomplished that. She says she loves it!


I used moda marbles for the sashing, and the backing is by Deb Strain, although I can't remember off the top of my head which collection! The fabrics in the squares came from a mini-FQ-bundle I had in my stash for while. Although I didn't like piecing the blocks together, and wasn't completely happy with the way they turned out before, now that they are put together, I really am happy with the overall product!

Some more finished stuff and a giveaway with a CAUSE!

So I finished the last two Halloween totes... I played around a bit with the measurements on each one, so they aren't all COMPLETELY identical.And here are all three:
And my niece got the dress I made for her yesterday to celebrate her first day of preschool and she loves it! I am just so glad it fits (it ended up a little longer than I intended but thats okay), since it was a surprise, I couldn't just ask her measurements, and living several states away makes it hard to get them on the sly. Here she is enjoying her dress:

Okay, so usually I only blog about giveaways I enter that I REALLY want to win.... This time, (although I would really love to win the charm packs) it is more about loving what she's doing. Jennifer is having a giveaway here for THREE charm packs and a pattern.... but what I find more impressive is that she is also training to participate in the Nike Women's Marathon coming up VERY soon in San Francisco, benefitting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society... Her info and support page is HERE. I am waiting until Shaine gets home to see if we can spare a little more to donate, but seeing as how we already donated to support my old Army friend, Reinalyn, who is preparing for the same race, he may say no.

Trick or Treat Bag! (and in just one naptime!)

So I finally got around to making the trick or treat bag I said I was going to! Here it is all finished:
(I know I still gotta work on finding some beautiful background spot for showcasing my finished projects!)

There are TWO great things about this bag.... 1- I made it with the Halloween Night fabric I won in a giveaway at 44th Street Fabric and some leftover black linen I had from the laptop bag I made my sister (which means I didn't SPEND anything!)... and 2- I finished it all except the top stitching around the top during one naptime!

I am going to make two more, each using a different print of the Halloween Night fabric, one for each of Cullen's little friends, since we are planning on taking them all trick or treating together.
Cullen likes it (sorry the picture is so dark! Probably better that way, since as you can see the room is still "under construction" and getting ready for the new baby, so its a bit of a mess!) It's the perfect size for him to be able to carry around, especially since there's still another three months to go :)

Here is an in progress picture that I took, you can sort of see the angled wavy lines I did for the quilting. I used flannel in place of batting, simply because the only batting I had on hand was super puffy extra loft, and I like how flannel still allows the bags I make to be "quilted" and flexible, without being TOO flimsy (like the first pieced bag I did, with only super light interfacing).The "C" is raw edge applique, and was supposed to be "drippy" (think the old titles of the Goosebumps books), but I am not 100% pleased with how it turned out, but after fusing it on, and stitching it, I decided to stick with it. Anyway, as always, the first one is a "test run", and I made a few mistakes while "flattening" the bottom, but it still works, and only other "crafters" would ever notice. I know what I did wrong, though, so the next two will be perfect. I am really pleased all my measurements worked out, since I sketched it all up this morning on the sketch pad I FINALLY bought myself. I also sketched out the layout and measurements for the I Spy quilt I want to make. Who knew it would be so hard finding diverse scraps worthy of an I Spy Quilt??