I am so excited!!!! And finally some pictures!!

First of all I wanted to send a BIG thank you to Abbey Lane Quilts! I have been reading blogs and Abbey Lane Quilts was having a give away. I entered and I won!! I won an Abbey Bag!! I am so excited!!! It is teal and green in color. Oh I just love it!! I can not wait for it to arrive in my mailbox so I can display and use this fabulous bag :) Go look at their blog :)

Now on to some pictures!

The next few pictures are for projects waiting to be done!!

So, these are the fabrics that I have chosen for the pinwheel party. It is not the best picture, but the background fabric is navy blue, all in solids and flannel. This will make a lovely quilt for someone!!
For the Meadow Breeze Mystery BOM, this was the kit that I ordered for all the appliqued blocks. Look at all those fabulous colors and the beige is the background for all of the appliqued blocks.
For the pieced blocks for Meadow Breeze, I went out and found this fabric...OMG I LOVE IT!!! those greens, blues, beiges...oh wow!!!
Now look at all those colors together....woohoo...this is going to be amazing!!!!!

Here are some projects that I have done in the past year or so!!

The little miss wearing her apron, and taste testing the cake mix!

The little man sporting the apron that I made. Whenever he helps me bake this is a must have!

Here is my daughter lying on her ladybug quilt

Here is the quilt that I made for my son. He loves cars!!

New fabric, now just the time!

As I have mentioned before I am participating in a Mystery Block of the Month. I ordered the applique kit for this, LOVE the colors in it! Part 1 was released last month, and yesterday part 2 was released. Part 2 includes some piecing and there are 2 color combinations that you can choose if you desire, or you can get your own fabric. Well, I decided to look for my own fabric to make my quilt a 1 of a kind, and I must say I am super excited with what I found! We need only 2 colors, a light and a dark. So my light color is a pale green with darker green trees all over it; then there is the dark color choice. For this, I chose a leaf print in teals, blues, and greens. I think that the fabric will look stunning with the fabric from the applique kit. I am very excited to get started on this project! My goal is to have part 1 and 2 completed before part 3 comes out!

I am hoping to get a few solid hours of sewing in this weekend and hopefully finish up Kayne's wall hanging. This way, whatever project I start it will be guilt free :)

need a few more hours in my day!

I love quilting. The problem is there are just too many things that I want to make and not enough hours in my day!! Here are the things I have on my to do list as of right now:
1. Kayne's Wall hanging
2. Meadow Breeze BOM
3. Pinwheel Party
4. Mini Easter quilt along
5. Quilt for my youngest daughter
6. Charm pack bag
7. Honey bun bag
8. Have fabric for some Bargello's for a couple of family members

I am also teaching Kayne's mom how to quilt! And she has some projects she would like to do together.

Other projects I have on my list:
1. Crib bedding
2. Baby blanket
3. Tutu's

And one thing I would LOVE to do is a Dear Jane Quilt! This is a project I would like to do for me, have it become a family heirloom, and take my time to complete this one.

Now that I have my to do lists typed out, I better get sewing!!! Would love to have these all done this year, plus more!! hmmmm, how to get a few more hours a day just for sewing...who needs sleep, right?

Oh my, what a crazy week this has been!

Wow, there has been so much going on, between outings and daily family life and sewing, this week has gone by very quickly!

Today, well it is my Anniversary. Married my sweetie 7 years ago! The time has gone by so quickly!

I have managed to start stitching all of the applique down on Kaynes wall hanging. I decided to do a blanket stitch using a verigated thread. I must admit that it is taking longer than I thought it would to do all the stitching, but that is ok. It is well worth it. I tried to get it done in time for our anniversary, but no luck. At least the thought was there. I have already put in about 3.5 hours of stitching and think I may have about another 10 hours or so. Guess that will depend on how many interruptions from the 3 munchkins!

On the weekend, we went to a good friends place for a BBQ, first one of the year. It was fantastic, the food was amazing, the company was great, and being able to talk about and show current sewing projects was a wonderful bonus!

Also, on the weekend we went to my moms for a family BBQ and a good visit with my Uncle and Aunt from Holland. That was another wonderful day, busy but fantastic! Waiting for Kayne to get the pictures on the computer, we did a bunch of family pics and it will be great to seeing them all!

As for projects, today I started to cut out strips of Tulle. I am making some Tutu's for my girls and one of my nieces, and maybe the other niece if she likes it. Once all the strips are cut out then I can finish them up while sitting with the kids :)

I also managed to get the fabric picked out for the Mini Easter quilt along that Bradie Sparrow is doing over at "A Quilty Kind of Girl Designs". This looks like a great project to do, so go and check it out!!

Learning some great things...this place is fantastic!

So I have been sewing for several years...20+ years (wow that makes me feel old...lol). But I am relatively new to quilting, only made my very first pieced quilt about a year ago. And I have quickly learned there is A LOT to learn about quilting. There seems to be several ways to get the same outcome and there seems to be new tricks to make piecing easier. There is just so much to learn, to try, to absorb.

A good friend, Bradie Sparrow, at A Quilty Kind of Girl, has been having Tutorial Tuesdays, and these are GREAT! These tutorials are very easy to follow, there are many pictures to follow along with, and I must say I have learned A LOT from these. Thank you Bradie for all of your time and effort that you have put into these tutorials for all of us :)

Bradie has also designed some amazing quilt patterns, and has them listed on her website QuiltCetera. These patterns are wonderful, you should pop over and check them out!

well, I am getting a wee bit closer!

Tonight I was able to sit down and fuse all of the applique pieces down. It took me about 2 hours or so (but that was including the time I was playing with our baby daughter). So hopefully tomorrow I will be able to break out the sewing machine!

I am thinking that the stitching will go rather quickly as it is all straight lines I will be working with, no curves at all. I am thinking, or more like hoping that it will take me 2-3 sessions at the machine. Now I just need all 3 kids to agree and cooperate with me on this! Soon Pictures will be posted!

Finally, I have made some progress!

Last night I finally got some time and worked on my hubby's wall hanging. That new fabric I found is just perfect and what it needed. I played around until 2a.m. with the placement of all the pieces and then when I thought it was good, I put it up on the wall to be sure. There was one area that I was not 100% sure I liked, but seeing it all day on the wall has made me see that I do like it. Now to move on to the next step of fusing it down and applique stitching.

It may take a bit to get it all fused and stitched, but it will be worth it. I will be very happy to get this finished and hung up on the wall...1 week till our Anniversary, and I am still trying to get it done for then.

woohoo! I think I found what I was looking for!

I did not do anything on the wall hanging yesterday, took a bit of a break to ponder and see if I could figure out how to make it better as although I like it, it is still not popping for me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I needed a color on it that was a bit brighter. It has a black background, then has a coppery-orange, a print with browns/rusts/silver/gold, then a solid silver. I then played around with adding a bit of a gold print. This was ok, but still not what I was hoping for. So, when I was out yesterday I stopped to look at some fabric and think I found exactly what it needed. It is a metallic creamy silver. When I put it on the wall hanging when I got home it looked even better than it had against the samples in the store.

With finding that, the excitement is fired up again to finish this, and hopefully in time for our anniversary...have 1 1/2 weeks...I can do it, I can do it, I can do it!

As I have mentioned before, I am doing a "Meadow Breeze" Mystery BOM, and had ordered the kits for all of the appliqued blocks, well that arrived yesterday...ohhh it is so pretty!!! I am looking forward to starting that, as soon as the wall hanging is done!

Woohoo, got some work done!

Last night, I actually got some time in on Kayne's wall hanging. For this project, he saw a picture that he fell in love with from the book "Asian Elegance Quilting with Japanese Fabrics and More" By Kitty Pippen and Sylvia Pippen.

I looked for a pattern, but then Kayne decided that he wanted it to go into our room, and put it on the wall above the bed, as result I have to make it much bigger than what the picture was. So I found some fabrics, all satiny in texture, and I have begun to cut them out with heat and bond light on the back. As the picture is rather abstract, I decided to applique the entire thing. I am now trying to position all the pieces onto the background fabric so it is just right. This seems to be a bit more of a challenge than I had actually anticipated. I have added another color into it, to break things up. But I find that for me the hardest part is making it abstract. I like things to be balanced and equal, where this project is not that way. This project is definitely taking me out of my comfort zone!!

I do have about 1/2 pinned in place right now and I am happy with it so far, but that can still change...I think things will be changed a few times before I am competely happy with it. Then to just stitch it all, so some sashiko on it, and then quilt and bond it! Hmmmm, not sure if it will be ready for our anniversary! (But I should have at least the top done for him to see :)

Need a bit more time!

So I have been getting some things done, but none of them are the BOM that I am participating in. Although I will get those done and soon I hope, the one project that I have been working on is a wall hanging for my husband. I have been promising to make it for him for a long time now, but other things came up, a quilt for our son, and then the 10 wall hangings I did for Christmas, the 6 aprons with embroidery on them also for Christmas. After Christmas it was the arrival of our new daughter Malaika. My husband has been so very kind and waiting for his to be done, so now I am trying to get it done for our Anniversary that is this month...in 2 weeks actually! I am not sure if I will get it all done by then but I am going to do the best that I can in between the kids needs, the daily cleaning, and now the big spring clean. I can do it, right? Somehow I just need to find a few more hours a day, and that would give the the bit more time that I need :)

One of my packages arrived!!

So I went to the mailbox today and was very happy to see a nice big envelope with my name on it. I quickly went home and opened up my package! The Paper Doll fabric, and the clothing fabric from Windham fabrics arrived. Ohhhh I am so excited to have received this. I am going to cut out the dolls and the clothes and make the paper dolls for my daughters, and may even make some for my nieces as well. Oh dear, another project to add to the to do list...I need many more hours in a day, just for sewing!!!

Something New...

I have started this blog to share the crafts and projects that I am working on and have completed. I like to do all kinds of crafts, and willing to try any new craft once. The main thing I love to do is sewing. And with that I have recently begun quilting, which I must admit I am already addicted to! One more reason to go to the fabric stores and look at all the pretty fabrics! I also decorate cakes, mainly wedding cakes and birthday cakes, but any event is always good with cake!

With quilting there is so much freedom to create, and there are so many activities that you can participate in. One thing I am going to try is a Quilt Along. I have never done one of these so I am thinking that this will be a new challenge and a lot of fun. The Quilt Along that I will be participating in is “A Pinwheel Party”, and you can see all about it at Twiddletails.

This Quilt Along will last for 13 weeks so I will be making a new block every week. Now I am thinking that this should be rather simple to complete, but seeing that I am a mom of 2 year old twins and a 2 month old, it may be a bigger challenge than I really anticipate. I am hoping that I can at least get 15 minutes of sewing time in a day and that should allow me to complete this on schedule. I will post the progress as I go, and share all the adventures along the way.

I did get some fabric for this quilt, I decided to go with solid colors and make it in flannel. I think that this quilt will be wonderful for a little person and flannel is so nice and soft and cuddly! Now I just need to take pictures of the fabric and post it.

The other fun thing I have joined is Aurifil BOM by Pat Sloan. This BOM is a free BOM that is going to last 9 months. You can download the first block here. I think that this is really pretty and can not wait to start this one too! For this, I did order the first kit for all the applique blocks and background for for the applique. You can get it here, and while there check out Pat Sloans Blog.

So, while waiting for the Meadow Breeze kit to arrive, I will try to get the Pinwheel Party blocks done. Oh I am so excited to get to the sewing machine :)