DQS12

I decided to join in for another round of doll quilt swapping this year. This is the quilt I sent to Anita.  Robbie helped me decide where to place the fabrics. He's pretty good with colors. I used some embroidery floss to do some hand quilting on it. It was so relaxing to sit and watch a movie and work on quilting this little gem. I know that I will be doing it again soon.

I received this beauty from Jennifer.   I actually commented on this quilt when Jennifer was asking which border fabric to use. I loved the way it looked with the word fabric and I even left a comment saying so.  I don't normally comment too much because there are so many (usually around 300) swappers posting various photos that it is hard to keep up. This little mini caught my eye because of the bright fabrics with the black prints so I just had to put my two cents in lol.

Backyard view

Baby quilt top

I've been slowly working on putting all my loose blocks together. These blocks are from when I was part of the 3X6 Bee swap over on flickr.  They all worked well together so I turned them into a baby quilt top. Next step is to get it pinned and quilted. Hopefully that will happen this month.

The fence is my neighbor's and I have tried hanging quilts up there before to take pictures but I never had any clips strong enough or that opened wide enough to hold the quilts. Last month Hubby and I were wandering around Target and I happen to see these fun clips hanging by the beach towels.

The fishies are meant to clip your towel to your beach chair so it doesn't blow away. They have a very strong spring in them and they open wide enough to clip over the thick boards on the fence. They had flamingos too but for some reason they were almost 3 dollars more. Since I bought 3 packs I wasn't willing to spend the extra money. They came two to a pack.

Flamingo Love

I've always loved Flamingos. My facebook picture is a stuffed flamingo I crocheted a couple years back. When I saw that Heidi had a new hat pattern I had to buy it.  As usual I had most of it done but I needed to sew the wings on and make the earflaps. It sat like that for a couple weeks before I got tired of seeing it sitting there and finished it.  I think she looks cute sitting in our lemon/orange tree.

This tree was here when we bought our house 10 years ago. Each year it looked like it was dying and Hubby wanted to chop it down but I wouldn't let him. Every few years it would produce 1 or two fruits. They looked like oranges but they tasted sour like lemons. Last year it poofed out with all this foliage and think it looks cute. Last year it produced 8 fruits but most of them fell off before they ripened. Some birds made a nest in it 5 or 6 years ago and we see different birds use it each year. When I put the hat in there to take pictures I saw a second nest. I love watching the birds work on the nests and seeing the new babies.



*** I just saw an episode of Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives and they were using a sour orange that looked just like the fruit that grows on our tree. It sounds right. ***

Blankies

I've been working on these baby afghans a bit here and a bit there. I knew I needed to get them finished but never found the motivation. With three new babies due to arrive later this year I figured now was as good a time as any to get them finished.

This one was knit diagonally. Simple brainless knitting.

This one is a gorgeous green color and was crocheted. The pattern was on the back of the Pound of Love yarn label. It only takes one ball to make the afghan. This pattern is a favorite of mine. It has such a nice texture for babies.

I had the hardest time getting pictures of these afghans. They were either too dark or too light or the pics just looked "off".

May for Me BINGO card

It's almost time to link up for the May for Me BINGO game. Head over to Tonya's to see the rules.


I used some scraps for my BINGO card:

B...boat, penguin, buoy, superman, soccer

I...tractor, bee, tennis, chicken, ladybug

N...Elmo, fire hydrant, free space, fire truck, cowboy boot

G...train, shorts, bugs, bike, stars,

O...cars, shirt, butterfly, frog, crayon

Bright and Wonky

Jane opened a new block swap this year and I knew I had to join in. The first round was Bright Wonky Houses. I had fun making these and seeing what everyone else came up with. The next round is Wonky Trees and there is even a hint of a round of Wonky Stars. I think we are all going to have a fun quilt when it is all done.

The Traveling Stash is ready to travel again! (closed)

These boxes have been looking rather beat up lately.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner. The Traveling Stash is  going to Martha's house!








One of the boxes from the traveling stash arrived at my house this weekend! I won this box from over at My Sister Made Me Do It.  I believe there are 4 stash boxes that have spawned from the original traveling stash box and 1Pass It On box. To see where they all are head on over to VROOMAN'S QUILTS  where Sharon has been keeping track of the boxes for us.  It's getting a bit hard to keep track of all the boxes and where they have been. Check here if you are interested in seeing where this box has been.

So, what did I remove?

I found a few fabrics that tickled my fancy. That cute owl is part of a panel. I'm thinking it wants to be a baby quilt.

A new seam ripper because I have worn through a few already. I also grabbed two spools of Aurifil thread. I haven't used Aurifil thread before but I have heard that it is wonderful to work with.

These are some of the fabrics I placed in the box. I love surprises so I don't want to spoil anyone's surprise when they receive the box. I replaced the notions with fabric also.

This box has a stack of patterns. I found one (forgot to take a picture) that Hubby liked so I replaced it with more fabric instead of another pattern.

I put it in a new box and it is already to travel again.

Here are the rules:      
        1. You must be an active blogger. 

2. When you receive it, write a blog post on its contents, what you removed, and what you are putting in. 

3. Replace per diem - if you took 4 yards of fabric, replace it with 4 yards of quilt quality fabric.

          4. Due to postage and customs - open to the United States only.

Do you want the traveling stash to visit you? Just leave a comment and you are entered. Out of curiosity how are doing with your 2012 goals? I've finished 7 of my UFOs but I've also created 3 more. I have finished a couple new projects so overall I feel good. I was waiting for a thread order to arrive so I could get some more flimsies quilted.


I will draw a name next Sunday, February 26th.

Stuffies...bunnies and kitties

Last month I went on a stuffie making spree. Not only did I make kitties but I also made some sock bunnies. I am a funky sock hoarder. I drive my kids crazy because I always stop to look at this style of socks to make stuffies.

Here is a close up of a set that I made for a customer earlier this month. I have an order for 5 sock monkeys that I will be working on this weekend. These bunnies were all hand sewn. Sometimes it's just easier to sit down with a good movie and whip these up. They go really fast.

Here Kitty Kitty

I went a little crazy making kitties recently.  They are so quick it's easy to make a dozen or so. I used a pattern from Whosies and Whatnots but made kitties instead of bunnies.

I also made a couple for football fans. Hubby's favorite team is the NY Giants. He "steals" many of my creations but I wouldn't let him have this one. He has enough toys.

I also made a SF 49ers kitty. Rob's little sister loves the 49ers.  There was alot of smack talk a couple weeks back when the Giants played the 49ers. 

New Followers button

Google friends is being discontinued as of February 29th. There has been some rumors that it might leave before the end of the month. In order to still have a  followers button I went on a search. I saw on a couple blogs that they are using Linky Followers so I thought I would give it a try. It's supposed to do more than Google Friends did but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet. The new button is over there on the right side.

Because a blog post needs a pic here is Suzi. She was going crazy outside playing with the kids. Don't you love our brown grass? 

Another round of Viking hats

How I spent the month of January

Back in January of 2010 I had a custom order for 34 blue and grey Viking hats. The hats were for a group of high school cheerleaders from Staten Island, NY that were going to a cheerleading competition down here in Florida. This year the same school (different girls) ordered another set of 19 Viking hats because they once again were going to a competition down here.

I haven't been in the sewing room much lately and I sure do miss it. I think I will need to spend some quality time with my sewing machine very soon. I have a couple projects that need to be finished soon.

A few finishes

Before making my too long UFO list I actually finished a few quilts. The one above needed binding and it's twin

also needed some binding. I love the aqua and brown and those little elephants are adorable.

More binding finished off this little doll quilt.

Guess what? Yep, just needed binding.

Another finish that just needed binding. Notice a trend here? I seem to lose steam when it comes to the binding stage.

Added the binding...

...and some more binding lol.

That's it for now but I think crossing 7 quilts off the UFO list is a good start to the year.  It seems January is a good month for custom orders so I won't be able to get anymore projects crossed off the list for a bit. At least I will still be creating though. I enjoy working on custom orders so it's ok.

The List....the very, very long list

I had already decided that this year would be the year I finish up all of my UFOs from previous years (it's an ambitious goal but you know what they say...go big or go home) when I came across a fun blog .  . Sew It's Finished is a blog where a bunch of bloggers have gotten together to motivate each other to finish UFOs from previous years and cheer when someone finishes a project.

I went through some of my old UFOs and grabbed some pics so I could list them here for accountability. I skipped all the little things like the HSTs that are sewn but not ironed or trimmed and all the coins I cut for some coin quilts.

It's been rainy and dreary today so the pics aren't the greatest.


In no particular order...

1. blocks in  a baggie

2. This is a very large pile of blocks from swaps that I joined over the last couple years.  They need to become quilts, table toppers, or tote bags.

3. my string blocks with black centers

 4.  tufted tweets quilt. Needs borders sewn together.

5. snowmen wall hangings

 6. Bonnie Hunter workshop quilt

7. Valentine's quilt

8. brown kite. Just needs the binding sewn to the back and the tail added.

9. Pastel and white. I didn't make this flimsie, it came to me in a box of scraps.

10. Tropical

11. snowflake runner

12. Central Park goes grey

13. red, white, and blue stars

14. large star. Just needs binding

15. crazy pinwheels

 16. green

17. stockings

18. September calendar quilt

19. Thimbleberries apple cores

20. Christmas strings

21. Halloween swap quilt

22. pink and grey thrifty top

23. I spy a circle quilt

24. Christmas zig zag

25. doll quilts

26. brown and purple

27. black 4 square

28. I have no name for this because the list is getting too long for me to be creative lol

29. ME stripes

30. 2 Boo table toppers

31. Samoan stars.

32. embroidery blocks

33. Birdie blocks. I still a few more to make

34.  USA quilt needs binding

35. World quilt needs binding

36. flannel #1

37. flannel #2 ( don't ya just love my creativity?)

38. owl quilt

39. dinosaur quilt

40. grey and green pinwheels plus

41. boy 9 patch

42. Oh! Cherry-Oh coin quilt

43. girl 9 patch

44. owl 9 patch

45. Christmas 9 patch

46.  Birthday wonky log cabins

 Oh boy is that a long list!