Giveaway on Quiltstory

Head over to Quiltstory to win some gorgeous fabric! Ladybug Quilt Shop has patterns and fabric and a cute logo!

A free motion quiltalong!

I am so excited! Just as I am trying to learn how to machine quilt, here comes A Few Scraps with a fun quiltalong to help me out! I have now made three little quilts to practice but I am still not very good at meandering. I am hoping to get some tips. Jump over there for the quiltalong and a giveaway!

This is the little quilt that I gave my daughter for her birthday. I am still much better at the straight line quilting.

A week in review

This is one of my daughter's cats, Teddy, enjoying her new kitchen sink. She has been very busy with renovations of her townhouse this summer (taking nesting to the extreme!). You can see the transformation here at her blog, Cara's Catch All.

Well, I didn't get to all the things on my goal list this week but I did pretty well. Here are my new kitchen curtains.

The dress is done, the skirt is done, I have gifts made for the shower, I made a hostess gift for my sister in law, and started another gift for my daughter. I didn't get any of the bathroom project done (although I did enlist a helper!). Now all I need to do is pack! I will be in sewing withdrawal for a week!

Goals!

I keep getting distracted by all the ideas I find online. I have a pinterest page to save all the great ideas I find. Have you discovered Pinterest yet? Here is a link to my page if you want to check out what I am drooling over. I also love love love the 15 minutes of play from Victoria at Bumblebeans, Inc. I have been sewing all kinds of scraps together to make blocks. I have some of them up on my design wall and I adore them! I am currently making the little wonky star blocks to make a border for them.

Have you seen the posts where bloggers set goals for the month? Or Amy over at Amy's Creative Side asked people to decide on one thing and try to finish it this week. I seem incapable of doing only one project at a time! I have seemingly endless time this summer and yet many more ideas and projects than I can possibly get to before school begins! I have one week before we leave on our trip and this is what I want to get done:

1. Mini quilt hostess gift

2. Dress for Cara

3. Skirt for Cara

4. Baby shower surprises

5. Kitchen curtains (need new curtain rods and hardware but I bought the fabric today).

6. Order new kitchen/laundry room floors

7. Remove wallpaper, mirror, sink and toilet in powder room

hmmm... not sure this will all get done!

Scrappy House Quilt Finish

I made this little quilt for a friend I teach with. She and her husband own a small house they are renovating that they call the Love Shack. She spends many weekends on hands and knees scraping and sanding. After a few years of weekends, it is finally coming together. It was her birthday last week but she was in Australia! So I delivered this little gem to her today. It is taking the four hour trip to the shore with them right now!

This was a fun project and I am half way through making another one for my sister-in-law. I am practicing my machine quilting (and I have a ways to go) and it is lots of fun. I was able to write the words "love shack." How fun is that!?!

I am excited to have a follower (finally!).

I am linking this to AmyLouWho's Sew and Tell and Show and Share at Just a Girl and weekend wrap up at Tatertots and Jello.

New Kindergarten Quilt

Here is the new quilt made by my class, my assistant, Janet, and myself. We make one every year and this year I decided to use their handprints to illustrate one of the songs we sing. Kindergarteners are fascinated with rainbows!


We started by making a paper quilt to see where the handprints would end up and how big the rainbow would turn out. Then we laid the white cotton over the paper template to recreate the rainbow. It is hard to get small children to only make one print! They are very tempted to print until all the paint is gone (we watched them very carefully and this was a great group of 22 five and six year olds).



My friend and assistant, Janet did the quilting. We shared it with all the parents at the end of the year program and it will hang above my chalkboard for next year's kids to enjoy.


This is the back of the quilt. I let the kids make the dot with fabric paint markers and draw around them to make bugs, faces, rainbows, houses, and flowers. I think they did a great job!


I am linking this up to Amy's Sew and Tell Fridays. Go now and see the many great finishes this week!

Upcycled man's shirt to maternity shirt!

My middle child is expecting in November so I have been sewing her some new clothes. For this shirt, I stole a man's shirt from her brother (he actually has outgrown it) and added some black dots. I decided it was a little plain so I made the flower pin to brighten it up. It was easy to cut off the sleeves and use the binding around the armholes. I made the ties to so she can adjust the fit. I hope she likes it!