Custom Tea Cozy

I just had the fun of fulfilling a custom order for a tea cozy. I just love it when people contact me through my Etsy shop with custom requests. First of all, it is a huge compliment. And secondly, it is fun creating something with certain criteria in place. This woman liked the butterfly linocut tea cozy in my shop but needed something smaller for her tiny little two cup tea pot. She requested soft shades of purple, lilac and mauve.

Here's the back.
Now I think it is time to scrub the dining room floor and start basting!

Quilt Top Complete

I completed my yellow and grey Lady of the Lake quilt top. It measures 72" x 96." I am looking forward to basting and quilting it but am going to put it aside for a couple of days in order to make a custom tea cozy. That will be fun too!

Very Silly 8th Birthday Fun

My oldest decided that he wanted a cat themed 8th birthday party. I tried to convince him otherwise thinking that it would be really hard to come up with party favors and games suitable for boys his age. Everything is always Hello Kitty! Once I gave up on changing his mind, I was able to think of some fun games and the kids had a blast. When they first arrived, they chose a set of cat ears that I made with felt and a hot glue gun. I was able to find animal print headbands even so I didn't need to cover them! And I drew whiskers on their cheeks with an eyeliner. Then they made cats out of FIMO clay and I threw them in the toaster oven to harden. I didn't get any pictures of those without children's faces showing.

Then we went on a mouse hunt. I got these freakishly real looking mice and hid about 18 of them in really hard to find places. They hunted and found the more obvious mice and then I started giving clues. I had numbered each mouse on the tail before hiding them and had a list with their locations so I knew which were still missing. The kids begged to bring their mice home to hide in their siblings' and parents' beds to spook them.

Next up, each child chose a yarn ball. I bought Styrofoam balls and wrapped them with yarn leftover from my brief sock knitting phase in college.

They took turns racing them across the floor to the finish line using only their noses. This game was so much fun that we played two rounds. It was hysterical too. I laughed the whole time.
Then we opened gifts. We always play musical chairs for gift opening time. Whoever can't find a seat gets to give the birthday boy their present and receive their goodie bag. We played to the tune of "The Cat Came Back." I made super quick draw string bags out of a blue cat print I found at JoAnns. It was perfect.

Then I prepared lunch while my husband made balloon animal cats for each child. I bought the balloons and printed off some instructions from the internet and asked if he would be in charge of this activity and he agreed. I think he has gone overboard. Not only did he make a dozen or more cats, he also made me a balloon flower bouquet.
It was a very fun day!

Free Fabric

Free fabric...those words always draw a crowd don't they? Isn't this Kumari Garden by Dena Designs pretty?

And how cute are these little Michael Miller gnomes and their coordinating dots?

And I think just about everyone likes good old Nicey Jane.
My friend and fellow blogger Amy has just opened a fabric shop on Etsy called Pinked Fabrics. She is offering one yard of free fabric to one of my readers. You get to choose your fabric and can even request two half yards or four fat quarters! Won't it be fun to choose? Head over to her shop and take a peek!
To enter, just leave one comment here. I will announce a winner next Friday, Feb. 4th.

Blocks Complete!

I have finished all the blocks for my yellow and grey Lady of the Lake quilt! There are a total of 519 HST units in these piles. I enjoyed making them and I enjoyed sewing them together but I really did not enjoy all of the trimming down. Of course, the trimming down was very much worth it as they lined up nicely for me. I have decided to go with the random placement of the Kona Ash and the Amy Butler Slate Lady of the Lake blocks. I much prefer it over the diagonal placement. We are having an 8th birthday party here this weekend so I don't feel like it's a good time to lay out all the blocks on the dining room floor. Instead, I prepared the binding. I decided on a mini white and grey Designer Houndstooth by Free Spirit. I'm so excited!

All In Fun

The last time I shared a home renovation update was in October. At that point, our office room had been taken down to the studs, rewired, wall board put up and painted and the floors refinished. Since then, my husband has installed the trim around all five windows and the baseboards, cut through the wall where a door used to exist and reframed it, painted the trim, moved back in the desk and bookshelf and fishtank so we could resume use of the room, and began the process of building a built in bench. I had a vision of an "L" shaped bench where we could sit with storage below and a table in front. After a little sketching, we came up with this. Some of the openings will be cubbies and some will have door fronts. The tall portion on the right end will have two doors and a lamp on top. The table will come later, as will the built in bookshelf to the right of the bench. The bench has been slow going as my husband has a day job and all. I have been going on and on about the fact that I want it done so I can make pillows to decorate it. Since pillow forms were on sale at JoAnns today, I picked up a few in preparation and left them on the bench...all in fun of course...it should make him laugh.
Oh, those vertical things on the bench are clamps holding on a piece that was glued on and not yet dry.

Random Layout

I put the blocks out again but this time the Lady of the Lake blocks are not in strong diagonals but placed randomly. They are truly random (in other words, there was no thoughtful arrangement). I added 5 more blocks since yesterday! 22 more blocks to go. Sadly, I am out of floor space unless I move to the dining room floor and take the table out of the room!

Row by Row

I'm going to give you a glimpse into my wacky mind. As I work on this quilt, I can't get the Peter, Paul and Mary song that goes "inch by inch, row by row, I'm gonna make this garden grow" out of my mind. Just replace "garden" with "quilt" and it works though.
I now have 5 blocks by 5 blocks, a respectable lap size quilt but I am going for 6 blocks by 8 blocks so I have a ways to go.
I haven't decided yet if the Lady of the Lake blocks will be arranged so that they form diagonal lines of darker grey blocks and lighter grey blocks (like this layout in the picture) or if I will place them randomly. I am also thinking of taking out the solid yellow shot cotton large half square triangles. They are a brighter lemon yellow and I am not sure I like them. They have been bothering me from the start.
My fabric came in so the Happy Butterfly print and the grey elephants are in my new blocks. I decided against the yellow elephants when I saw them in person. They are less yellow and more apricot. They are cute but don't work well with these colors.
I haven't gotten much sewing done this past week due to all the snow and need to remove it. And there is more coming this week. Ugh.

Ship Ahoy Mini Quilt

My nautical kick continues today. I have been wanting to piece a sailboat and so I did! There are 13 little white sails on this boat, each measuring only an inch! I love the way it turned out! It looks so sharp against the dark navy batik.

And the Modern Meadow material makes a nice ship's hull.



Here are some close ups of the other blocks. Once I got over my fear of ruining my prints by stitching on them, I have been enjoying freemotion quilting around them. It adds nice dimension. Next, I have to try to stitch through them without regard to the design and see what happens.
My nautical kick is now over and I am moving on. I am hoping my yellow fabrics will come in the mail today and I can resume work on my yellow and grey Lady of the Lake quilt. This nautical quilt is in my shop. I hope it will hang in a little boy's room or perhaps a vacation house by the sea.

Sail Away Pillow Cover

I just finished up a pillow cover for the shop today. Since it was nautical in theme, we packed the kids up and headed to the boardwalk in single digit temperatures for a little adventure and photoshoot.

I used my linocut design of a little boy's sailor suit for the centerpiece. This design reminds me of my son's second Easter when he wore a navy sailor suit and hat. It always makes me smile remembering how adorable he looked! He has one of these prints framed and hanging above his bed, as well.

I freemotion quilted the words "Sail Away" and a couple of waves along the side of the pieced center. I used a glass bead to dot the "i."

The upper left corner, opposite the "Sail Away" is heavily quilted with straight lines, 1/4" apart. A row of white waves are raw edge appliqued along the bottom.

The materials used in this pillow include Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow, Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt, and Kona solids.

Yellow and Grey Lady of the Lake Quilt Progress

I have been making some progress on my Lady of the Lake quilt top! I wanted to include one of my quilting process panels as part of the quilt. I made the print quite some time ago so I was happy to make the block using it last night. I edged it on the left and right with Kona Ash and then a row of the half square triangles, just like all the Lady of the Lake blocks.

In the final layout, the quilting process block will be near the lower right of the quilt, not the center as seen here. I just put them down on the floor quickly. I am aiming for a twin size quilt and have all the large half square triangles ready to go and the centers of the Lady of the Lake blocks. I have many of the smaller HST ready too but am pausing while I wait for the following to arrive:

Michael Miller Meadowsweet 2 Happy Butterfly

Tiny Tip Top by Diawabo House Designer in Slate Grey

Tiny Tip Top by Diawabo House Designer in Lemon Yellow
Once those come in, I will complete the rest of the Lady of the Lake blocks. I want to make sure these prints are interspersed and not just on the last 3 blocks!

Leaping Frogs

For starters, I have added some three packs of leaping frogs to my shop. Each pack includes three pieces of 5" square fabric each with a single linocut leaping frog in various shades of green. I used different shades of green inks in order to make it easier to coordinate fabrics for your projects. In time, I will print rows of rainbow colored frogs playing leap frog as well.

Yellow and Grey

I'm excited to be starting this project. Since sometime early this fall, I have been collecting fabrics in shades of grey and yellow with a large quilt in mind. For the past couple of days, I have been busy making half square triangles.

And stitching them together.

And making them into these Lady of the Lake blocks!

Granted, I only have two completed blocks but I will get there. I wasn't familiar with the Lady of the Lake block until Rita posted the pictures of her quilt. I was completely inspired.

Quilting Process Mini Quilts by YOU

1. 005, 2. Process Quilt almost done, 3. Quilting Process Mini, 4. Mini Quilt
I have to say that it is very exciting to see some of my quilting process mini quilt panels not only go out into the world but made into little quilts and shared in my Flickr group!
Here is a mosaic of the mini quilts that have been shared so far. Isn't it neat how they each have a personality of their own? I can't wait to see more! I know that the panels are out there....

This is a custom panel in black and red that is headed out tomorrow!

Custom Celtic Eternity Knot Pillow

In the fall, I made a custom pillow for a customer who gave it as a gift this Christmas. The recipient liked it so much and it matched the dust ruffle on her bed so nicely, that she asked me to make a coordinating pillow for her husband's birthday gift.

I have two handcarved linoleum blocks with the Celtic Eternity Knot/Ulbster Cross design. For the first pillow, I used the larger linoleum block. I used the smaller design for this pillow in the center of each of four Four Point quilt blocks. The finished blocks measured 8" so a grouping of 4 worked perfectly for a 16" pillow.

As with the first pillow, I used tan thread to quilt on the linen (freemotion quilting around each knot and otherwise straightline.) The quilting on the remainder of the pillow was done with a green variegated thread.
The beautiful afghan seen in these photos is not my work. I only wish I could knit like that! It was a wedding gift from my college roommate. Isn't it beautiful?

I'm linking this to

Tell me what you think about frogs

I've been asked a number of times now whether or not I am going to print any frogs for my shop. I would be happy to but I am not sure how best to do so. See, it all started with rainbow colored frogs playing leap frog in order to get into their proper spots.

Then I reprinted them for a funky, non traditional set of Christmas potholders.

Most recently, I printed just the leaping frog as a part of this mini quilt.
If I did offer them in the shop, would you like to be able to buy a fabric square with a single green leaping frog? Would you want a line of rainbow colored frogs playing leap frog? Would you prefer a package of prints with the rainbow colored frogs each on their own square of fabric so that you could sew them together or not as desired? Would you prefer a panel with the frogs and a pattern for the mug rug or mini quilt? What do you think?

Sugar and Spice and "Everything Nice"

A girly girl at heart, every now and then I need a lace, rick rack, floral, girly project fix. I made a mini quilt using my "smocking" dress on hanger linocut.

I'm calling it "everything nice" which I freemotion quilted above and below the print, using white glass beads to dot the i's (with some little hearts for extra girly good measure). It's embellished with pink rick rack and 100% cotton lace.

I attached little triangular pockets at the upper corners for hanging but it is also the perfect size for a doll's cradle. I had fun and got that out of my system. It's in my shop!

Fishy Shop Update

I have been meaning to print more goldfish in bags, both kissing and lonely, but kept putting it off till I sold my last print recently (thank you!!). They have now returned to the shop. I am only listing one at a time but if you want multiples, let me know and I can set up a custom listing.

Mini QT "Take Flight"

You might remember that I received an amazing "Birds on a Wire" quilt made by Carol for our December/January Mini QT swap. She has now received my quilt so I can share it with you. Our theme was "Take Flight." Remembering that Carol really liked my Scrappy Mug Rug with frogs, this idea came to mind. I printed my linoleum block frog and built this applique around him.

He is supposed to be leaping from the twig/leaf diving board into the pond where he will hopefully land on the lily pad. I added a little embroidered fly to the background with some three dimensional sheer wings and quilted its path. The colorful rainbow at the top is similar to the mug rug that Carol liked but was also added for more color because I know that Carol likes lots of white and bright colors and I aimed to please!

I was hesitant to make this quilt because I thought that the idea was a little silly but Carol has a great sense of humor and my husband encouraged me to go for it. I'm glad I did because it was very enjoyable to make.