A New Baby!

This afternoon I attended a baby shower for a dear friend...she took a class with me about a year and half ago.  Then she took a few more classes :)  I loved her sense of humor and her energy and we soon became friends.  Most of my classes are at least 4 weeks long so I do get very well acquainted with the quilters and they become well acquainted with each other. All of them are fabulous!  I truly adore them!

I have been waiting to make this baby quilt for someone....and the style was perfect for Christine and her new little one ;)  And I know Christine's color palette so it was quite fun!

This is the Denyse Schmidt 'Sleep' quilt...the pattern was found in a quilting magazine....

The pattern calls for a solid piece of fabric for the top 2/3rds of the quilt and the word and another section on the bottom....

I broke it up a bit by adding some linen and a little swatch of fabric on the top section....

The back was Kona in Ash with a little log cabin detail....it is machine quilted and bound with Amy Butler's orange dot....a great fabric!

It was a lovely day....and I feel blessed to have met so many wonderful women who share a passion for sewing....I am truly blessed....

mary

Hanging....

I have finished 4 blocks of the New York Beauty and that may be all I do....but I am still hanging on what to do with the borders....I need to consider it some more....

I like quilts with an odd number of blocks....but this one may break with tradition....

these are not sewn together yet....sorry for the wrinkly blocks...and the bad picture...I need a new camera

Today I took down a quilt I have had hanging for a very long time...and replaced it with my Dresden Plate quilt....I am getting mixed reviews....

Everyone loves the quilt - just not sure if they love it hanging.  It is very bright....which I like...but maybe too bright for my great room?  So now that I have made my husband add more holes to the wall to hang this larger quilt...what am I to do?  I guess I will just have to make a quilt for that space....hmmmm.

  

Did you watch the wedding?  She was a lovely bride!

mary

A Party!

I want to officially invite everyone to a Party!!! 

Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts is having a BIG 5 Blog Party beginning May 2nd.!  She has planned a fantastic Giveaway and you have the opportunity to meet 5 different bloggers {one is little old me!} each day next week!!!!

  

So pop over to Ellison Lane and check out all that is going on!!!

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I have my hubby home for two weeks....both a blessing and a curse....we have house stuff to work on and he will be doing most of the work  {the blessing} and we have house stuff to work on {the curse}!!!

So to prepare, I spent ALL of yesterday cleaning my closet....and once you start one closet you have to clean others!  So I cleaned closets, and organized my stash {WHEW!}  

Today I was able to get a little sewing done....

I am working on the last block for the New York Beauty Quilt....

   

Now trying to decide on the style of border.  I love piano key borders, but I do those quite a bit.  So I am thinking of a half drop diamond border....we will see.  What kind of border do you like?  Or no border at all?  Would love to hear your thoughts on borders.

I want to finish this one....I am itching to do another Material Obsession Quilt :)

Hope you are having a Wonderful Wednesday!

mary 

A Surprise Gift from a Sweet Friend!

This girl.....received the sweetest package from overseas....Australia to be exact.... from this girl....at

PatchworknPlay.....

Inside, I found a letter and several packages all wrapped in tissue paper....even the tissue paper was special....different from the tissue paper we have in the states :)

Not only was there a lovely note....but a tissue keep for my purse....someone is always in need of a tissue and usually I have to just dig one out which doesn't always look so pleasant....so now we will have neat little tissues available when they are needed! Yay!

just look at this adorable fabric!  very vintage looking isn't it?

Tucked inside this was a precious little scissors magnet....which is now residing on my refrigerator....

isn't this so precious!

Then there was the same seam ripper I had admired on Susan's blog....what a sneaky girl!  Isn't this the most clever seam ripper....

And if that was not enough....she made a fantastic mug rug for my morning coffee!  

it's a tea cup!

So I sat down this afternoon and put a cup of coffee on my new mug rug!

This was such a sweet surprise :)  And if you haven't visited Susan's blog....you should pop over and see what she has been working on...she creates some amazing quilts and quilty projects!  I am always in awe of her paper piecing!  Thank you Susan....you are a dear!

mary  

A Lifetime Quilt....

A few weeks ago I posted a picture from a Traditional American Arts book.... a quilt that I would love to have.... a Grandmother's Flower Garden....

Well, this quilt keeps haunting me....I found one 'not for sale' at an antique shop....one of my student's brought in a beautiful sample made by her grandma....then I found it again in this old book of mine....

So, I am taking this as a sign....and I started working on this quilt as a 'lifetime project'.  Hopefully, it won't really take a lifetime, but it just may.  This beauty is all hand pieced.  I have seen different versions of this quilt, but I am in LOVE with the one from the book....

I have seen hexagons floating around on the blogs for some time now...I am a little late on that bandwagon.... but these are fun to make and a bit addicting!

There will be 3 more rows added to this one....I quickly figured out how to do them so they fit together a little better than this one....it is a bit goopy in the corner....BTW don't you love that fabric in the background?  

This will be a late night/early morning project.....

Now back to work on the NYB....and then the QAL.....and then the Eloise Quilt.....geesh, I really need another project!!!!

mary

Yum....

Who knew....my favorite Halloween candy is a treat at Easter too!

The candy corn that is....but the milk chocolate eggs aren't bad either....

We are having Mike's mom for dinner tonight since we will be traveling to my mom's for Easter...

So not much going on with the sewing machine....I have been hand stitching the binding on another quilt....also a gift for someone special....

This is the back...I will show you the front later!

Happy Easter Weekend to everyone!

mary

A Royal Wedding Package....

Well....Molly has been cooking up a little surprise for someone.  Molly's friend has a grandma from Nottingham.  We all love the grandma!  And since the royal wedding is quickly approaching {oh what will I wear?}, Molly decided to surprise her with a few treats.

So for my part....I made a Union Jack pillow!

I had to square up the pillow to a nice 20 inches square....added some lovely dark blue stitching....

And there you have a pillow fit for a queen....hmmmm....

And Molly stitched a tea towel....

She used about a yard of toweling...hemmed both ends....

Added some trim!  We are going to complete this surprise gift with some tea and yummy cookies/biscuits!  She will love it!

I worked on another block for the New York Beauty....

Now I need to go clean my closet....ugh!

mary

Sleepless in Columbus....

We were awakened at 3:00 am this morning by tornado sirens....the family and dog hurried down to the basement.  Thank goodness nothing happened other than lots of thunder and wind and lightning...

We all went back to bed and the dog {being half chicken} jumped up in bed right between Mike and I.  Well, I had about 8 inches of bed and Mike and the dog had the rest.....so needless to say I am pooped today....

I did a little mindless machine quilting....

And I took a nap :)

See you tomorrow!

mary

Another Dresden Pillow...

No doubt I love the Dresden....I have made a couple of Dresden Quilts and now my third Dresden Pillow....

 

I used Hokkoh tiny blue polka dot for the background and Alexander Henry's tiny check for the center....

And sometimes you fall in love with the back as much as the front....

Molly and I are working on a special gift for a friend....Molly, of course, is supplying the embroidery.... 

And finally, I finished the second block of the NYB....

And this is about as close as we got to sunshine today!

mary

Lovelies....

I picked up some lovely fabric and fabulous buttons while at work yesterday....

The buttons stacked with roses will go on the back of a Dresden Pillow....

This one....

applique the center circle....

And add some hand quilting with perle cotton!

Hope you are having a lovely Sunday :)

mary

Thank You.....

I treasure quiet cool mornings....I can sit with a cup of coffee and do a little hand quilting while the house is still and quiet....

This is the perfect "spring" quilt :)

Thank you to Jennifer from Ellison Lane Quilts for adding me to her Flickr Friday post! 

Jennifer has some fantastic quilts on her site....I love her recent solids log cabin quilt! And her Wonky Stars in Central Park quilt....perfect!

Thank you so much Jennifer!

I am off today to shop with Molly....tomorrow is her 23rd. birthday!!!  Yay!   An excuse to go shopping!

Happy Friday!

mary

The Secret is Revealed!

I had to keep mum about the project I was involved with for the shoppe....Sew To Speak....but the previews are being revealed!  You can read all about it on the Sew To Speak blog.

Robert Kaufman sent the shoppe samples of fabric designed by local fabric designer Suzy Ultman....our challenge was to make items using the fabric!!! Yee-haw!!! The line is called Appleville and is full of bright, bright colors with adorable little houses, apples, and sweet friends who look like they live in Appleville!!!  Very happily, I might add :)

I felt the panel samples should be framed in bright youthful fabrics, with lots of colorful stitching!

This fabric was well suited to playful shapes dancing around the blocks....

And a little fussy cutting sets the scene for a bright summer day!

It was a fun challenge!  Although I don't think we had a single sunny day the entire time I was working on this....so sorry for the less than stellar photos!

mary