Can't help myself!

I've been on a bit of a streak with purchasing fabric.  I need new fabric like I need a hole in my head - seriously!!  But, with so many adorable options - I simply can't help it! 

In my defense, this stack came from my husband for Valentine's day.  Well, I did the selecting and ordering, but he told me I could for my Valentine's day gift! :)  That's how we operate - so romantic, huh?  I'm just not into flowers and would much rather have something that makes me happy - so what better??

I've actually had my eye on this fabric since I saw photos on blogs from last Quilt Market.  I love the colors and think it will be a perfect quilt for ME!  It is Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket for Moda. 

Last summer, we bought a piece of land on a lake near us that we will eventually be building a lakehouse on.  I'm thinking WAY ahead here - but, thinking this would be perfect fabric for a fun lakehouse quilt.  Obviously, I first have to have the lakehouse!  :)  At the rate I get things done though - we should be good.

Then, I made a Fabric.com purchase for these 1/2 yard sets.  This is Scoot by Denna Rutter for Riley Blake Designs.

And, this is Fox Trails by Doohikey Designs for Riley Blake Designs.  Both of these are so cute for the boys and I'm excited to make something with them.  

I can't even remember where I bought these, but I think it was either on etsy.com or Ebay.  I found them for a good deal - and so there I went.....bought them right up!  The top is Ruby by Bonnie and Camille for Moda.  Middle is Circa 1934 by Cosmo Cricket for Moda.  And the bottom is So Sophie by Chez Moi for Moda.  Love this stack of jelly rolls!!

 

And, finally, one of my favorites.....a fat quarter bundle of Verona by Emily Taylor for Riley Blake Designs.  (Sensing a trend here???  Yes, I think that Riley Blake is my favorite.)

These colors are gorgeous!  I love this fabric - just need to come up with a project to cut into it.  It is a sickness.....I know.

Field of Flowers Quilt...Finally!

I have FINALLY finished a quilt that was started ~7 years ago!  The top was actually finished for quite a few years, just awaiting a backing and quilting.  And, I'm happy to say that it is finally finished and now keeping me comfy on the couch! :)

I remember starting this quilt when I first moved back to Nebraska in 2005.  We had moved out of our small 2-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia and I had a bit more room, of course, here in Nebraska.  So, I decided to make some quilts for the guest bedroom.  After building a new house, getting married, and 2 little boys later, it is finally finished - pretty crazy how time flies!

This quilt pattern is from the book Cottage Charms by Nancy Halvorsen, Art to Heart. I actually used the same fabric as in the book.  The fabric is 'Charms' also by Nancy Halvorsen from Benartex. 

This a very "girly" looking quilt - it would be perfect for a little girl, but it will have to do for me instead. :)  The little boys probably wouldn't like it.  "Ewww....that's for girls" - I can just hear by 3 year old now!

I actually made this quilt too (which just needs quilting and it will be done too) in the same fabric - and had TONS of fat quarters left over.  I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I was shopping for the fabric.  I bought wayyyyy too much!  (Imagine that!)  So, I decided to piece the remaining fat quarters together and use them as the backing for the quilt.

These photos are all a little too dark.  I took them in too much shade and they don't capture the soft pastel colors in the quilt.  Need to time my photo sessions a little better.  (Basically it is begging my husband to go stand outside to hold a quilt up in the air - so, I'll see what I can do!)

 

It's finally a finished quilt!  One more checked off of my 'To Complete' list!

Christmas in March?

Well, not quite!  My husband has been wanting a cover for our shuffleboard table in our basement for a long time now.  The kids keep getting into it and he doesn't want it scratched up.  They like to drive their cars on it, throw their toys up there, climb over the couch up onto the table....you name it - they've done it!

So, my Mom graciously made him a cover for Christmas....BUT she didn't get it actually finished until just now.

After several attempts at getting the measurements right - it now fits perfectly!  And, my husband is excited to have it.  It's made from vinyl fabric with a flannel backing that we got for pretty cheap at Walmart.  Nothing fancy, but it will do the job!

We can pull it off when people come over, but it will be so nice when the kids are playing down there unattended.

Thanks Mom!  Craig thanks you too!

Puppy Blankie

I've had this baby blanket sitting just waiting for binding for quite a while now.  My Granny (who I talked about here) wanted to make a quilt for each of my boys.  At the end of her life, she just wasn't able to get many quilts finished - although she always thought she could still do it! :)

She picked this puppy fabric out, which was already pieced together in squares when she bought it.  It is part of the Peek-a-boo collection by Springs Creative Products, which you can still find here.

It isn't a high end fabric, but still very cute and perfect for a little boy.  I ordered this polka dot pattern from Fabric.com for the binding.

I mentioned that I thought that ric-rac would be cute on it - so, she decided to add that too.  My Mom helped put it together and Granny had it machine quilted.

All that was left was the binding, which I just finished recently.  I actually got this quilt before she passed away, and was planning on having her sign a label to add to the back.  But, unfortunately, she passed away before I was able to take it to her.  So, it isn't signed by her, but still very special to have a quilt that she helped with for my youngest son.

There is a white minky dot on the back, which makes it so comfy and cozy for my son.  The quilter added overlapping circles around each square.  

  

I know this will be a treasured baby blanket for my son!

Repurposed Cabinet

I have lots of stuff.....lots of stuff!!  And, I love cabinets with lots of little drawers, which works out great because I need them to store all my stuff! :)  So, I found a project to help with this....

 

Sadly, my Granny passed away in June of 2011.  She was a "collector" of lots of things!  She was a teacher, so she had lots of school stuff - books, crafts, and other stuff that she could never stand to get rid of.  She was an artist in many different ways - but, she loved quilting and painting most.  She liked teaching quilting classes, spent hours and hours reading through quilting books/patterns, and working through small projects.

Granny with my youngest Son - Thanksgiving 2010

When she passed away, my Mom and her sisters began sorting through her house.  My husband and I traveled back to her house to help them load up some moving trucks.  It was an exhausting weekend!!  We were planning on leaving behind this old metal cabinet full of dust sitting on the side of the garage.  We had some room left in the moving truck, and I had a big idea to paint it and clean it up to put in my little studio in my basement.  So we loaded it up and it came home with me!

My husband and I took it all apart (well...mainly my husband)!  We cleaned it up, drawer by drawer...  It took a lot of time to take all the little drawer pulls off - spray paint them and add them back on to the drawers.  I used a metallic silver spray paint for these:

We also painted each drawer and the outside cabinets with white spray paint. You can see from this photo we had quite an operation going in our garage.  (These are horrible photos that I just took with my cell phone!)

And, here's the finished product!

I am so upset that I didn't take a before photo so that you could really appreciate the transformation.  But, imagine a dirty, rusty, and matte gray version of the above.  I decided to put it in my "studio" and store all my scrapbooking stickers by categories, like Christmas, Halloween, July 4th, Summer, etc.

Took a while to get them all arranged and the drawers labeled - but, I am feeling very, very organized now!  As you pull the drawer open, the front drops for easy access to the contents.  I think the cabinet was originally used to store 8 1/2" by 11" sheets of paper - maybe handouts in school or something like that.  

It was a lot of work, but I love it!  And, I'm so glad that I decided to throw it in that moving truck.  I'm sure Granny would be glad to see it being used!!  :)

Lots to do!

I have tons to get done around here!  Many, many projects underway and I really haven't been doing too much sewing lately. With the holiday's, work, and getting some other stuff done - I just haven't had time!  First up, I have been working on a new quilt with 60 degree diamonds.

I actually took photos to put together a tutorial (my first!).  I will be posting that as soon as I get my top completed.  I keep changing my mind on how to piece the stars together!  I need some more fabric for my newest idea....so I might head to the quilt shop this afternoon.

I also started a Dresden Plate quilt out of Camille's Ruby collection.  I really like it, but struggled with the one shown in the photo above.  It isn't laying flat like it should, so I've been reading that I just need to sew the seams in more to make it lay flat.  Not a good sign because I plan to make 12 of them for a large quilt!  I do love the colors though - and it was fun to make.  Just need to sew more precise I guess!

I also plan to make a quilt from this fabric for a good friend who is expecting a baby boy in a few weeks.  I need to get on it to get this completed!

And, next in my plans is to start making this quilt.  I've had this pattern and fabric planned for quite a while - I just want to get it started.  The pattern is Basket Lattice by Sheri Pape Designs.  

And, the fabric is Amy Butler...which is gorgeous!

And, I took 3 quilts to the quilt shop right before the holidays that are just sitting there in piles waiting to be binded.  I will be posting about those when I'm finished as well.  I've also finished my French Roses quilt top - just need to get the back together and then off to the quilters for that one too!

So much to do, so little time!!!!

New goodies

I have some goodies (meaning new fabric purchases) to report!  I also just took 3 quilts in to be quilted, so I'll be blogging about those soon too!

I got a half yard of each of the fabrics in the new Riley Blake collection "So Sophie" designed by Jen Allyson and Deena Rutter for My Mind's Eye.

What a lovely little stack!  Here's a link to all the swatches - I only got the pink and blue sets.  They are adorable and I'm excited about using them (of course, just adding this to the list of projects I have in mind!)  My favorite is the polka dots - so cute!

I also found some fabric to match my camper fabric (yay!).  A while back I found this cute camper fabric at a local quilt store and thought it was perfect for my family.  We have a camper and love going as much as we can between Spring and Fall.  So, I thought this would be cute to make a camping quilt with. It is from the collection "On the Road" for Robert Kaufman designed by Ronnie Walter.  Isn't it cute?

I found the "Fresh Meadows" collection designed for Exclusively Quilters on Fabric.com (which has great deals on fabric by the way).  I ordered the 2 leaf prints and the one with the brown background at the top of the photo below.  I've combined it with a yellow, green, and orange from my own stash and think the group looks great!!!

Now I just have to decide on a pattern for the 2!