75th Birthday Party...

My mother was born in England and came stateside when she was 12.  For her 75th Birthday, I made her this Union Jack pillow.  I've been seeing blocks all over the blogs and have wanted to do one ever since,

This is the pattern that I used to make a 20" pillow.  I paper pieced the 4 quadrants on this pattern and it saved a lot of fabric.  You can find the pattern here.  I made the pillow entirely from stash fabric--yahoo!!!  Can't wait to make a few more pillows and possibly a quilt....

Carrots and Strings...

 Getting ready for the bunny--want to make some last minute fabric carrots for your holiday?  Go to http://gratzindustries.blogspot.com/2010/03/tutorial-make-carrot-full-o-candy-for.html.  I made a bunch for the tables for the upcoming 75th birthday party tomorrow...

I have always wanted to do a fun string quilt.  Go to http://alittlebitbiased.blogspot.com/2011/03/im-kind-of-loner.html and see the fun quilt that was made.  She also gives a link for the tutorial.  Last night, I taught a quilt class at my church and taught this technique.  Easy peasy and fun to do.  We had a great time...

Some DS sweetness...

A little Denyse Schmidt sweetness.  A lot of the blogs have been tempting and teasing me with her new fabric line, which is carried by JoAnn's.  It is going quickly and it is such sweet vintage wonderful....Go grab you a little sweetness too!!

A Happy Birthday to You...

 This is a picture of my mother when she turned 18--it is also a picture of her wedding day.  Recently, my mom celebrated her 75th birthday and many many years of marriage to my father...This year, we are throwing a birthday bash for my mother next weekend...which necessitated this next picture...

I started this banner last year and had lofty goals of hand quilting it.  I got about 1/2 way through--which I might add took many painful hours because, although it is embarrassing, I don't know how to hand quilt.  Because the special party is coming up, I machine quilted over the hand quilting and threw on the binding and presto--the banner is complete and ready to go for the birthday bash....May it see many a birthday and bring a smile to many a face in the coming years....

Sew day with Rosie...

 Here is my niece modeling the shrug her mom, Rose, knit.  Rose did a fantastic job and the yarn is so wonderful and soft...This will be incorporated into her her spring/Easter outfit this year...Doesn't it make you want to be little again?

 Front version of shrug--wonderful...

 Back view of sweater/shrug...magnificent...

A few posts back, I was making the pink puppy out of 2 1/2" squares.  Saturday, I cut out and sewed the red/yellow/black puppy for darling nephew.  Here are the kids posing with their puppies--the pink one was named Rapunzel--any surprise and the boy version was named Cody...I think it is love...

Liberated Patches of Sunshine...

 Ever since I saw the Sunny Day quilts in the making on various blogs, I knew I wanted to make one as well.  I also tried my hand at sewing some liberated blocks several months ago.  I really need to practice the technique more so I can get some good looking blocks, but in the meantime, I am sewing them for the center in my blocks...I should get the rythym of things by the time I hit 30 blocks...

 I got some wonderful bright solid fat quarters from Connecting Threads for a song on one of their sales...thought I would give them a try...the fat quarters have a real silk like feel to them and I think it will be really fun to utilize all the colors--there are 24 of them...

For six of the 30 blocks, I am embroidering little bluebirds and then will build the block around them for a touch of whimsy....I have the picture in my mind--let's see how it translates to the overall quilt...I'm thinking of calling the quilt patchy sunshine...you can find the pattern here.

Swim bag...

This is my old swim bag--a great recycle project that has served me well, however, I wanted a much deeper bag with a deeper pocket to hold items and actually keep them dry...Tonight, I set about to make a new bag...Lucy really wanted her picture taken tonight.  She kept posing and posing...

 The new and improved bag...3 rows deep instead of 2 and webbing handles instead of capri sun pouch handles...It will go for its' maiden voyage tomorrow when I join my friends at water aerobics at 5:00 am...

New and improved deep pocket...I think that I'm gonna like my new bag...and  it was free and the bag is water proof...bonus!!

The working woman...

Our quilt guild is making a Journey of a Woman's Life quilt.  This is our block that we will present this month...the working woman.  Can I just tell you that it was really hard to come up with something that would represent all women regardless of whether they worked in or outside of the home.  Here goes...Hope they like it!!

Little Birdie Stitches...

This is the April block...I tell you, I get so excited for the next installment, I can't stand it...Wish it was May 1st now...To download your patterns for Jan-April, go to the button on my left side bar, Birdie Stitches..