Doggone cute puppy quilt

My latest quilt finish is the doggone cute quilt. This was a gift for my cousins new baby.  It was a ton of very, very tiny fidgety little pieces. I thought I might have to pull all of my hair out! 

There are eight different styles of dogs, each dog had to be cut and sewn one at a time. The eyes START as 1x1 inch squares before you add four 1/4 inch seams!

I am so glad I perservered though. The result is adorable. And this was a good quilting lesson in several ways. One - I can do pretty complicated quilts now. Two - rip and rip again. Three - I learned a serious amount about how pieces go together to make shapes and how to line up seam allowances.

I had the perfect tiny dot for the binding and it really felt like it tied it together.

The quilt has one very special dog, his bow tie is made from her daddy's shirt. He passed away last year and I saved every scrap after I finished a memory quilt knowing they would come in handy for other quilts.

When Sammi saw the bow tie block she said, " mommy, this is a very nice doggie quilt, but why does one have a ribbon and the others don't?" I told her it was a piece of someone's daddy's shirt. "Oh! When she sees it she will think of him! "  

Smart girl.

Doggone cute (pattern available at sew fresh quilts)

Made March, 2016

For baby Lane

Fruity placemats

The other day we were looking at old photos and Jack said - hey! We used to have placemats! I hD screamy bought this berry fabric on impulse at Joann. While waiting on a service man I just roughly cut them out and quickly quilted them. No measuring or rotary cutting because the kids will just soil them.

They sat there for four days while I tried to figure out how to quickly bind them. I ended up zigzagging on some vintage bias tape. It got easier as I did more if it, but note to self - place the cut edge to the front! It seems backward, but it goes on much nicer. 

Next up - a low volume quilt for me!

Paper pieced snail

My kids are crazy right now. There is so mugs fighting, crying, screaming , tantruming and other assorted nonsense that I'm losing my mind. 

I'm trying to keep calm by sewing all the things. 

Yesterday while waiting for the plumber I made a paper pieced snail. He's not perfectly lined up, but I ripped it once and gave up.

Pattern is free, forest abstractions by violet craft, found on violetcraft.com. 

I quilted it and turned it into a throw pillow.

It's a fun addition to the living room! 

Today's project was placemats, hopefully finished tomorrow.

Flea market sundays

Man, flea market season was in full swing today! I bought a ton of stuff plus I spotted my first singer featherweight in the wild. (It had been at an estate sale a few weeks ago, but my kids were off school  so I could go. Now I'm wondering how much it was there, because it was $450 at the flea.)

What did I buy?

Apple core quilt top.

The sweetest vintage puppets ever.

Freezer baskets for the pantry. I left two behind and as I turned around to change my mind they were gone. Dumb move on my part. I am using them in my pantry.

Tablecloth.

Winking Jack treat bu me and spun cotton heads for Halloween.

Silk bindings and a sterling pin cushion.

Super sweet baby/doll quilt.

Orphan quilt blocks.

Random linens.

Cutest pull toy ever.

Fun chalkboard.

Tied quilt WITH ALL THE PRINTS.

This is no piece of technical quilting mastery, but I'm so smitten with its charm.

Gorgeous star quilt.

Which won me over with these three little pigs fabrics!

A happy Sunday indeed.

Thrifted

Man, the flea market/junk scene hasn't been good to me lately. Despite hitting an estate sale, the flea, ten garage sales...I bought nothing. 

I did thrift a few winners though:

Old sleeping bag with best floral print ever. Hello new picnic blanket!

A $3!!! Bernina. This was a thrifting dream come true. I've looked at every thrift store sewing machine for ten years hoping to find a Bernina. This is a cheap model, but perfect for the kids and Dave (since I won't let them touch my quilting machines!)

And a gorgeous pile of vintage fabric scraps. 

I have been so, so, so tired lately. Dead tired. I don't know if something is wrong with me or what, but I am barely functional lately. Ugh! I need it to pass NOW please.

Building

Reading

Sammi is starting to read! Mom this says big bru...big what? (And no, we are not having a baby. I'm cheap and it fit and was in the thrift when grant needed bigger shirts.)

Grant, this moment

Oh grant. He is just SO three right now. Pushing all the buttons, pushing all the limits. 

Insisting that he cannot get out of bed unless his father gets him up, even though said father had been at work for an hour already. (The phone worked once he calmed down a bit.)

The other day he told he has a girlfriend at school called Nora. When asked what his favorite thing about Nora was, he replied "she has barrettes in her hair." Awwww. (And last night he was quite sad to discover Nora had not been at school that day!)

Asking all the questions -

Mom, what are the birds tweeting? (I will admit I laughed because it made sound like the birds were on Twitter.)

Mom, why are the damn gumballs all over the road? (Because we just keep raking and raking and they never end and the lawn guy blew a bunch in the street!)

Yesterday the street sweeper came through. Grant is obsessed with construction trucks, so we went to the driveway to watch. The guy pulled the truck over close to us so he could see but it scared the crap out of him and he took off running into the garage as fast as he could! I laughed so hard.  He's so much like my brother when he was little - he would run screaming away from everything!

What isn't so funny are the flipping EPIC temper tantrums he has right now thar are so bad they make me actually cry! I survived Jack at three and man, this kid is giving that one a run for his money. Oy.

P.S. The glasses attract a lot of attention. It's made him very outgoing! He stops and says hello to every.single.person he  can. What an unexpected change!

Spur of the moment felt dress up play book

I'd been trying for days to come up with a gift for a little girl when I had a flash one afternoon. I've had a yard of wee gallery dress up fabric and a yard of the wee gallery dress up clothes fabric for awhile now thinking I might make a quilt for Sammi. So  I fussy cut some of it and combined it with wool blend felt to make a little book. 

Cover.

The pages are six by six squares. I was going to embroider words in the left large margin, but I decided it's fine as is. I might do it on the next one though.

My kids have already dressed then up several times. (Hence the need for another - one for us!)

The back cover has a large pocket to hold all the clothes. 

This is not all of them. There are shoes and bags and accessories, girl clothes, boy clothes, etc. After a bit of trial and error I settled on fusing the clothes to one sided fusible fleece. It makes them sturdy and the fleece on the back sticks fairly well to the doll figures.

I sewed fabric tape to the binding so it was tidy amd hiding the put together seams.

And I fused a label to the inside cover to hide the cover embroidery. Next time I think I will add a 

Piece of felt there first, it's a little blah.

This was a quick, satisfying project and hopefully it will be well received!

Flea market Sundays

This morning was a worlds largest garage sale thing. I paid extra to get in early because it's usually a madhouse. Plus getting in earLy meant having the kids dressed by six.

Usually I fill up my cart. This year I went through three times amd this is what I bought:

A pair of west German Carolers. They are pretty big, roughly seven or eight inches tall.

A small dish towel that screamed make me into something. 

And a fairly large egg...

With another gnome.

I thought maybe I imagined how much I buy, so I looked back. But nope, last year it was a full cart. March was an entire month of pretty big shows with nothing to show for it really. Perhaps it won't be a great junk season this year.

Guess I will just have to go back to making all the quilts then! :)