Sew La Ti Embroidery:
quilting

Here i go, jumping on the end of the year, wrap up blog post wagon....Everyone is doing it!

I finally put together my quilt top from A Notion or Two. I have had these blocks hanging around since my month in February :) I love them all together. I have to admit I am a bit scared to quilt this one, I'm just going to have to jump in and do it.

I have been taking a break from things, after all my holiday shows and getting ready for Christmas I was completely worn out and ready for a break. By a break I really mean I haven't been sewing things to sell. I have been working on unfinished projects that have been waiting to get done, and I have alot! I probably won't even get them all done, oh well!

I also feel like I need to finish things I started here. I'm going to finish posting about SPARK, San Francisco, and the presents I made for my kids for Christmas.

What is it about after Christmas that makes me want to clean up everything and start fresh for the new year? That is how I am feeling with everything in my life. We are still trying to get everything cleaned up and put away after Christmas, our kids always get too much, we have to get rid of things to fit the new stuff.

Speaking of getting rid of stuff, there is still alot of sale goodness in my shop, thanks for all that have purchased things! I have been trying to get rid of some things I had hanging around for awhile to make room for some new things I have ideas for. I actually am really excited to get back to work, but I have told myself that this week while the kids are still out of school, that I am also having a break.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you a Happy New Year!

I learned from Sew Mama Sew blog that this is tree pants, not a tree skirt. I guess because it is square not round.

Who knew?! :o)

This was finally done and a long time in the making for my very dear and wonderful friend Jonelle in Germany. She, many moons ago, asked me to make her a Christmas tree skirt in blue, white and some silver. Then she trusted me to make something for her. Time passed, a baby was born and 2 Christmas's later it is under her tree instead of in my WIP pile.

I made it reversible, not so much by design, but because i wanted to make sure to use all of the fabric i had bought for the project. Chris(hubby) suggested the straight line quilting, hoping that it would look a little like a snowflake(roughly). All in all i am calling it a success....mostly because i know she loves it and it has a wonderful home.

love you Jonelle

I'm joining in Amy's sew and tell today!

I am so excited to share Sage's quilt top that I finished! I used this tutorial from Cluck cluck Sew. Sage picked out all the fabrics herself from my stash. I love how it turned out! Now I have to get working on the back, and I think I am going to pay to have this one quilted, I'm not sure if I want to tackle a quilt this big.

By the way, my neighbor's probably thought I was strange, to get this picture (before it started to rain yesterday) I laid it out on the grass in front of our house and climbed up on the porch railing :)

I also wanted to share a Christmas present that I started last night because I am just dying over how stinkin awesome it is going to be. I am making lap quilts for my 3 girls, out of my very favoritest vintage linens, I am talking the vintage linens that I have been collecting for years now and not had the guts to cut into. I am cutting 6 1/2 inch squares and each quilt is going to have 16 different yummy prints in it, in each girl's favorite colors. This one is for the blue and purple loving Kinsley.

I'm joining in on Amy's sew and tell this week! I am always sewing something :)

Here are some of the things I have been working on this week. Above are some Bird Cage Christmas ornaments, I love these, I made some for myself last year. The backs of them are vintage linens, and besides the cream fronts, the fabric for these came out of my scrap bag, which I love, I need to use up those scraps!

I have been slowly working on a quilt for my youngest Sage. I had my kids pick out their fabrics from my stash months and months ago for their new quilts. I feel bad it has taken me this long, but what do you do? I especially feel bad because Sage (who is 5) has never had a bed sized quilt of her own. What kind of a Mom am I? :) Stay tuned for the finished quilt though, I love, love all the fabrics each of my girls picked out, they are going to be so cute.

I also finished a batch of girls purses. That mushroom one is my fave. I am getting ready for all my holiday shows coming up. They start up next weekend!

You can never really know what is going on in the lives of the people around you, can you? The struggles others go through behind closed doors are often unknown to the people around them. I live in a very small community and had the privilege of lending a hand and a little comfort to someone that needed it. In turn she gave me inspiration.

She is such an amazing woman, fighting breast cancer and being all the things all women wish to be. Strong, beautiful, inspiring. She is always cheerful and happy in spite of everything. Her love for and relationship with God shines through her.

When i first heard what she was going through i kept asking myself what could i do? how can i help her? My skill set is quilting...so, I presented our homeschool group with the idea to make this quilt for her and was pleased that they wanted to take part and participate by writing personal messages to her. I just pray that they do not fade or wash away...i wanted to have the chance to wash it first to see if there were going to be any great catastrophes but i ran out of time. Pray!! pray hard.

I could not bring myself to quilt through any of the personal messages so i just outlined each box in pink. Then i spent what felt like forever straight line quilting, of random sizes, the rest of the quilt. It looks beautiful but was a lot more time and work than i anticipated.

I also wanted to hand stitch in some things that would be personal to her so i did a pink on pink breast cancer ribbon...a purple on purple cross...and the names of her husband and children, so that they would be with her when she used this quilt no matter when or where. I had not originally intended to make it pink but it turned out that they were her favorite colors. What a perfect coincidence.

She in turn gave me a gift...the gift of gratitude and appreciation(and a few tears) which really meant a lot to me. It is hard to know what people really think when you make something like this and then mail it away...and kids don't necessarily love getting a blanket.

This is ironically Breast Cancer Awareness month. What a perfect time to honor her fight by bringing her this quilt. If someone around you opens that door a little and lets you in consider it a privilege to do what you can....what seems so small and insignificant can mean so much to someone that is struggling. I know you don't know her but if you think of her take a minute and say a little prayer, every single one counts!



I am linking this up to Fabric Tuesday this week, as well as Amylouwho's for sew and tell. Got to Amylouwho's and see what everyone else has made and leave a little comment behind so they know you were there.

I made this for Avery when she was little(way before blogging)...and it lived on her bed for a long time. But at some point in all the moving it got folded and stored away in the linen closet with all the other blankets. It is worn and soft and i still am in love with the colors and fabrics. This was the first set of fabrics that i chose because i fell in love...that was the beginning of a fabric obsession that does not quit!

First, thanks everyone for your nice words and kind thoughts about my Grandpa Bear. I am doing better, we are doing better. I am just grateful we got to spend some time with him recently, and that my kids got to know him a little better.

Amy at Amylouwho is hosting sew and tell again. This week i wanted to finish something that had been sitting around in my sewing closet for months. It was a quilt-a-long that i joined back in June and never finished. oops! I did not finish it the way it was meant to be either but then it would never have been done for sure. Do you see what it is?

Go join in the fun if you have something you have been meaning to finish. Or just go and check out everyone's finishes.

I did it!! I checked off another finish before the baby comes....this baby girl quilt(using Oh Fransson's pattern, inspired by Emily) turned out better than i had hoped.

I had the flimsy finished last week in time for sew and tell...however it took me a little longer to complete the rest of the steps...piecing the back, basting, quilting and binding. You know, all those things that make a bunch of fabric that you cut into tiny pieces a real quilt.

I even gave it the good old wash and dry. I was fighting with myself about this, as usual, but in the end i forced my own hand and it was just fine. Thank goodness for color catchers...i use them even when i probably don't need them, because it makes me feel better. I was worried that the nicey jane fabrics and the osnaburg would shrink differently, but they were surprisingly the same! Hooray!

I quilted it with my standard straight line method using my walking foot and some thread that i had stashed away for just the right project. I used a king tut brand variegated thread that had most of the colors in this quilt and just a hint of pink. This was my first time working with variegated thread and it looks really cool. I like it. I am not sure if you can see it in any of these pictures, you might just have to take my word for it.