Saturday, April 23, 2011

Small Goals

My life is a series of small goals.  Without these goals I am sure that I would never get anything accomplished.  My goal for tonight was to turn on my machine and sew something.  With my busy life which is currently being consumed by track meets, it was a lofty goal.  My machine was turned on, I quilted a partial line on the quilt, decided that I didn't like the stitch I was trying and unsewed.  After all of this I was able to quilt 4 lines in a pattern that I think I will like.  I haven't decided how I will quilt the blocks yet, but I'm sure it will come to me as I work on the sashing.


Aren't they beautiful!

Goal for tomorrow:  Enjoy my family and celebrate Easter. 

Heather

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Birthday Gift

Today I made a coloring bag for my niece.  My brother and his family are coming home next weekend for Easter and I wanted to send it home with him so that my niece can open it for her birthday.  Time has not allowed me to make gifts the last few years, but on pondering that idea, I have decided that I can spend a day shopping for that perfect gift or I can spend a day doing what I love to make something special.  Hmmm... go figure, sewing won that contest easily!  The bag I made is from a pattern by Clothesline Quilts.  The bag pattern is really easy to follow and it is possible to make two bags in less than a day.  My kind of pattern for the school year.



This is the bag I made today for my niece's birthday.



This is the one that I made this summer for my youngest, packed with crayons and color books.

Now I need to get back to my sewing so I can finish the other crayon bag.

Heather

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Vacation

I have just returned from a vacation to visit my brother and his family in New York.  The traveling party included my 4 girls, my sister-in-law's sister and her daughter, making my car completely full of girls!  This gaggle of geese arrived at my brother's house and had a great time.  I met my new nephew and delivered his quilt, which I have not shown to anyone yet.  I made the quilt top for his quilt at the retreat I attended in January and finished the quilting shortly after.  When I was trying to figure out what to make for him, I came across the fabulous Dr. Seuss fabric.  This was perfect and meant to be his quilt!

I just love the border fabric.  It has many of the Dr. Seuss characters on it.


A close up of the quilting.  Not perfect, but cute anyway.

As soon as we were safely home I decided to work on a clutch purse for Francis to match the dress I made a few weeks ago.  I found the tutorial at the noodlehead blog.  Francis loved it and couldn't wait for me to finish it.  I don't think I have ever seen her so excited about a trip to Joann Fabrics.  She rushed right back to get the zipper for her purse (I forgot it last trip).  There was plenty of scrap fabric left over from the dress to make this without purchasing anything except the zipper.  The gathers are not very visible in the photo, but they add an interesting element to the front of the clutch.  Hopefully she will wear the dress and carry the clutch for Easter.


While in New York, I had to have a souvenir to remember my trip to Syracuse.  What better keepsake for a quilter than some excellent fabric?  I found a shop that I thought would be good, set the GPS and drove over there one rainy afternoon.  The shop I visited was Patchwork Plus, which I discovered had been featured by Better Homes and Gardens.  This was a wonderful shop and I left with a few things to inspire my sewing.  This morning I finished one of the projects I had planned for the fabric.  Genavieve has another dress for the summer.  I love how it turned out and amazingly enough I made the bottom contrast so that all of the tulips are facing the correct direction.



The model was being moody, so she is not in the dress but is excited to wear it to church tomorrow. 

Tomorrow is the last day of my vacation and there are so many projects I would like to work on.  I wonder which one will win?

Heather