doll quilt

Last week while blog reading I saw this adorable tiny ticker tape doll quilt over on crazy mom quilts' blog. Then the next day over at Sew Mama Sew she posted a tutorial on how to make the same adorable quilt - to see the tutorial click here

So since Nora's eardrum repair surgery she can not play soccer for the next few weeks and I was thinking... since Pink is her favorite color I'd make her up one of these and I even had some left over princess frog fabric that I used on the backing of her Happy Quilt...

So Friday I went upstairs and removed my pink noodle drawer and brought down to the dining room and laid them all out layered on top of each other and started cutting

Since all of the noodles were already 2.5" wide I just measured over 1" and sliced. and then again over to 2" to later square up a few of those

Here is a little something I will share with you - the tutorial shows just putting the 3 layers at the machine and adding snippits as you go along - no planning really. . . . well I just can't do that! I have to know how it's all gonna look and move things around to fit before I even make the first stitch. :P So I decided to try using hair spray to stick them in place. BAD IDEA.

Bad idea b/c it didn't work -most did stick to the white fabric but as soon as I picked up the piece to carry to the machine and it folded they started popping off! and the pink pieces were as hard as plastic... :( so I ended up using pins to hold each of them on in the long run... next time I think I will try Elmers school glue.

and see that blanket under the hairspray lid??? Well that is because I was holding each tiny pink fabric into the lid as I sprayed - I didn't want to make a mess... but little did I know that that black lid had a PIN SIZED HOLE IN IT and then noticed juice running out and lifted it up and LOOK AT MY TABLE!!! I quickly whipped up all the hair spray and took a photo then continued on with my project using the blanket... and afterwords when I removed it the spot was GONE! :) yeaaaa! Thank the Lord! Not that this table is in perfect condition - I've used it more for quilting than dining and it has the marks to prove it but I didn't really want yet another one to 'splain to my husband! Whew!

Thankfully this was a small project - other wise all those pins would have been a pain to work with if I had to roll up the quilt to get it thru the machine. I worked on it some Friday night and then finished it up Saturday morning.

I piecked three or four pink noodles to use as a scrappy binding and as I was joining them up and cutting them... seeing these leftover triangles gave me another idea - you could make up one using all triangles! :) Wouldn't' that be cool?! Actually last week in Nora's hospital room there was a boarder wallpaper around the room with all triangles lined up with the white space between them... and I thought that then too. ;)

I washed it up and really la,la,love how it turned out! so soft looking!

It's really quite a shame that Nora doesn't feel the same :( I know it was just a blue moon type of day for her b/c she didn't like my doll quilt I made for her...

...or the stuffed kitten present that a little girl from church brought over for her as a get well soon gift or the card that Bella drew for her b/c she made Nora the "short one" on it :( but Bella is 7 and Nora is 5 of course she's the shorter one...

...and she refused to eat spaghetti for supper saying she didn't like it when I know she does! URGH. :/

Well that is ok -b/c I do plan to make up some more of these with scraps that I save - after all Nora isnt' the only one in the house that likes to play with baby dolls - take a look at the photo I took the other night at the kitchen table of Paul Thomas and Olivia playing dolls.... ;)

Love from Texas!

fall mini take 2

Tonight while I had the camera out getting a few photos of the twins wanting to watch big sister Nroa play her computer game... I thought - Hey, I'll get David to take my photo with my mini so I can post on my blog for Crazy to see just how happy I am with it....

only problem - all David wanted to do was zoom in on my face. :/ and not get the quilt much.... men! LOL I then told him what I wanted and then he thought it would be funny to work that much harder at getting the opposite of what I wanted. Talk about hard to smile a genuine smile of thanks for the mini and not really show how frustrated I was at him. :P

See what I mean... he even got closeups of my watch or feet... urgh. Finally ONE photo of me and the whole quilt like I asked. Looks like next time I will have to find my tripod and learn how to use the timer on my camera!

and look how cute Paul Thomas is looking through the sales flyer like Daddy :) and of course Olivia is right there helping him pick out what looks good in the grocery sale paper! ;)

Love from Texas!

From her mailbox to MINE!!!

WORRY NO MORE!!!! IT Arrived today!!!!! My Fall Mini from Crazy'boutquilts is finally HERE!!! :) And oh how B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L is!!! I may have been the "last" to receive a fall mini of everyone who participated in the swap but that is fine and dandy b/c I received the best one of all!!! :)

and take a look at the love in the wrapping. A piece of tissue paper covered it folded up and only a single piece of clear tape and heart sticker to seal the deal..... so sweet! ;) In a way that reminded me of my mother... and I love her personalized label in the corner.

I tired to recreate the same mailbox photo with Crazy's mini as I had taken with mine. Look at those colors aren't they great!?!!

I’ve have seen this pattern done before and wasn’t’ sure what it was called but saved a photo in my inspiration folder for one of these years!!! I really love it – the fabrics blend together so perfectly and are G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S shades of fall which I really miss seeing in these parts where I now live! After all the hurricanes we’ve had in the past 4 years, we are just lucky to have trees I guess.

and then playing around I just tossed it over the fence post - this mini is the most fall looking colors in our whole county!!!! See that one little patch of color just above the right top corner of the quilt? That is about the only thing in that field that changes color each year. Really.

And of course I walked it to the front porch and took a photo of it by Nora's "Princess Emily Pumpkin" ;)

Sorry for the delay in sending you a note but I had to be early to the carpool line so I was the first set of cars along the pickup area b/c I had to rush to go take the twins to a friends home to play while I took Nora for her post surgery follow-up appointment – and you know Dr’s offices! Our appointment was 3:45. Anyway after that and going to pick up twins and chit chatting with Jill… then home to unload kids and CHECK the mailbox!!!

I'm so glad I took the kids in the house first and gated them into the den with a show so that I could just sit and enjoy my package on the driveway!!! And of course I took a few dozen photos hoping to get some good shots to show just how pretty it is!!!!

Crazy - You did a super job Thank you, Thank YOU, THANNNNNK YOU!!! I’m so glad we swapped between us b/c I feel that we got the best of all the minis in the swap! :)

EDITED TO ADD - here is a link to Holee's blog where she has shared photos of all of the quilts included in the HGTV Fall Mini Swap - go take a look... they are all so pretty! There is a lot of talent on the boards - and I'm so glad to be a member! Lots of support, encouragement and inspriation there ;)

Love from Texas!

Design Wall Monday

What's on my design wall??? Nothing. Not a thing..

But that doesn't mean that I'm not working on something! ;) Actually I've got a few clues for you.. see here these??? This is the first time I've ever worked with "setting triangles" before.

Need another clue... how about we leave the sewing room and go downstairs to the dining room.... floor that is ;) take a look...

have you figured it out yet?? How about one last clue...

Yep although my Quiltmaker magazine has been here several weeks, I'm just now getting around to setting my "Christmas Lights" mystery blocks together! ;) and I'm la,la,loving them!!!

and for the first time, I used these nifty little templates by Fons & Porter on my setting triangles. Cutting off the dog ears made it super simple to line up the pieces to the blocks to sew on the corners! ;) I can't believe that I've not used them before now!

and Ta-Da! My first ever quilt on point is looking great so far.... even if it's not on my design wall but on the dining room floor. ;) All left to do is press each of the seams in each row into opposite directions and then join the rows together... then move on to borders! I am really hoping to have this quilt done in time for giving to my husband for Christmas this year! ;)

... and in other news... I am still working on my copy of the Fall Mini I swapped with Crazy'boutquilts. I took it with me to the hospital last week and worked on it while Nora was having her surgery. She had to have the hole repaired in her eardrum.

I thought I had lost the sunflower template forever b/c I had left it there and even went back same day to find it with no luck. Called next day - no luck... and then 2 days later they called me and had found it on the floor! :) Yeaaa! I bought these back in 1999 and spent a whole day looking on the internet with no luck in finding replacements. I'm so happy they found it!

and Nora is doing great! She's only had to take pain medicine ONCE and that was right after we got home from the hospital - since then she's not complained of any pain. I do pull her hair back quite a bit from it b/c of the ointment - don't want her hair to stick to it.. I just pray that none of her school friends make fun of it. They have all heard about her "pretend earrings" episode and she even took a poster to school for show-n-tell showing how she went to the hospital the first time to have the seed/nuts removed from her ears.

We go tomorrow for her post surgery followup.

Love from Texas!