Unexpected Act Of Kindness! Thanks Rosie's Mom!

What a wonderful surprise!  

I found (what I thought was) a great deal on some old fabric that I've desired to own for a long time.

Side note:  You see on my Quilt Bucket List is "Quilting the Garden" by Blackbird Designs.  If you've never seen it done... You really should.  My friend Debbie Wick made it and taught it years before I was quilting.  I'm hoping she is going to teach it again this fall.  I LOVE this quilt.  Debbie's quilt wins BlueRibbons by the way....

Continuing with the surprise... I happen to visit Miss Rosie's Quilt Co blog earlier this week and stumbled upon a "Stash Sale" ( something I've never, ever considered ;)   Guess what?   there it is... Carrie is letting go of a Fat Quarter Bundle of Chelsea Boutique by Blackbird Designs.... of which many pieces were used in the original "Quilting the Garden"....  so i'm in right?  I want that FQB.  

I order it and within 3 days its on my door step... 

Oh the joy!  

But wait... Look what else is in the package.... There must be a mistake!

And that's not all...  Even more in the package... Yardage of Chelsea boutique too!

I write Carrie and ask her if there has been a mistake....wanting to pay for the extra pieces...

The crazy lady writes back and said no mistake... She loves to surprise... Can you imagine?

So here is a shout out for Miss Rosie's Quilt Co... Carrie is a Gem!

Thanks Carrie for making my week.  

Fabric Tuesday - Good To Be Back!

I've been away :(  (I was without a personal computer for two months)...  I recently acquired a used iPad and I'm hoping this works well with blogger... Lets give it a whirl!

Here is a little gem I've been working on.... "Family Estate" by Edyta Sitar.  I'm almost done.  Matter of fact my sister inspired me to restart the quilting last night. She picked hers up from the quilter yesterday and it is beautiful! 

A few weeks ago... After I stitched in the ditch and around all the appliqué with invisible thread, I started an echo quilt around the appliqué... I just DID NOT like it... So it was ripped out...  I'm kinda liking how the micro swirl quilting looks.  Do you like it?

This pattern is so much fun to make.  I took a class at A LQS "Sew Pieceful" in Campbell, NY.  Lovely ladies there and the instructor was my friend Debbie Wick.  She shares the best techniques and chooses beautiful pieces for her classes.  Love it!

Busy day at work today... Thanks for stopping by - its nice to be a part if the blogging community once again.

Hope to link up to Freemotion by the River and to Fabric Tuesday (if I can figure out how to do that with an iPad).  

Have a wonderful day all,

Karen

Work in Progress Wednesday -- You Decide !

Blue on the outside

I'm making this cute little table runner/wall hanging for a dear friend....  It's a surprise so I can't get her input -- but I know she LOVES blues and browns.

Simple, quick and fun to make from a  Bali Pop that I purchased (at a great price I must say) from my Local / Online Quilt Shop. 

I'm using a Anka's Treasures pattern from the booklet "On a Roll Again" -- there are some really great patterns in there!  I decided on the main (wide) border ... But I needed a little umph!!  What do you think?   It must be finished by the weekend !!

Blue on the inside

The borders will be applied to the long edge only, the finished piece will be 25 x 35.

Which border do you like the best ?   Blue on the outside(top), on the inside (above) or no blue at all (below)?

No Blue at all !

Thanks for stopping by - love to get your opinion !!

Hugs,
Karen

Birthday Doily Favors - Sew much fun !

Oh how I have missed you fellow bloggers!  I've been busy with fun things and not so fun things.... But tonight I decided to take a few minutes away from my work computer to share some special little favors that were made for my sister Janets's 60th birthday party!! 
It was a surprise party with many special components -- one of them being these pretty little wall hanging favors to give to each girl at the party -- there were 7 of us and we had such a blast putting these together !! See if you like....

My sister Michele picked out the doilies (at 2nd hand and antique stores), I rifled through my stash, and all of us girls had fun matching fabric with doilies !!  I love how they turned out !!  The blue and peach one was for the guest of honor -- and I did some needle turn applique behind it, so that the center would stand out!  Love how the shape of the doily matches the print on the fabric!!

The next one was our trial run -- my sister Michele loved the batik fabric -- so this one was hers.

Here are a few of the others that we did.... the one with the black background and little roses is MINE !   I just love that fabric.

On each one I used my Ink Jet printer and printed a sweet little label... I love the way they turned out.

If anyone would like a tutorial on the doily or the applique leave a comment below and I'll try to get one together.

A sweet gift, fast and easy and very special.







Check out this neat birthday cake design done by a local bakery !  Didn't they do an awesome job on this cake ?   Buttons, a little quilt to boot !!




In addition to having doily favors, my sister Michele purchased 7 beautiful antique tea pots in pinks and greens and filled them with flowers to adorn the table.   They were absolutely stunning (see below).

Thanks for stopping by - see more pictures below !

Three Sisters, Michele, Janet and  Me !!

Hugs,
Karen
PS - Linking up to Fabic Tuesdays and Linky Party Tuesday (see sidebar...)

For Sister-in-Law Kelli

A bunch of doilies

The vintage modern versions

 

Sister Michele bought antique tea pots and filled them with flowers !!

This pot was especially beautiful !

Work In Progress Wednesday

I'm happy to report that my 2nd attempt at Shadow Trapunto went much slightly better than the first attempt!    For a good laugh -- you can see the first attempt here. 

Now, onto my 2nd attempt -- I'm using the technique called out in Geta Grama's book "Shadow Trapunto Quilts" -- see her blog here and her most awesome book here...

I decided for my first second attempt to make a larger design - so I pulled the design from Hari Walner's book "Continuous Line Quilting Designs".  

Lessons Learned:
1.  My batting was not thick enough -- my fabric showed through the batting  -- I used a cheap med loft poly from Joann Fabric -- I'll use something thicker next time!

2.  I DID NOT have any water soluble thread on hand, so I used "regular old thread" in top and bobbin (how do we spell M-I-S-T-A-K-E!)

3. The paper that I traced my design on was TOO Thick!  next time, pick up the tracing paper that Geta recommends in her book!

Anyhow - for my first attempt and considering MY MISTAKES -- I was happy with the outcome...

I still have to trim and bind -- and although it's not perfect -- it's a keeper - a one of a kind (for sure) .. hahaha.

One thing is for sure -- this technique, if done properly can produce some stunning results.

Take a look at the wonderful things that Geta makes using this method!

Thanks for stopping by.

Linking up to Esthers' & Lee's WIP Wednesday!  and to Leah's Free Motion Friday !!

Thanks Geta for a great book, great tips and most awesome projects! 

Fun Peasant Skirt

I had a blast making these cute little peasant skirts for our DGD Angelina and her new doll.

Angelina is 8 years old and she LOVES wearing the layered "Peasant" Skirts.    Having never made one before -- I thought I would give it a try.

The fabric is a fine corduroy from Joann's and it was a real bargain -- 60% off plus an additional 30% off coupon for the entire order -- I can't pass up those types of deals!

I used a great little tutorial from JCaroline Creative! that has since disappeared.  It looks as though the business has shutdown and the tutorial is GONE. 
It was an awesome tutorial that included an online calculator that provided exact measurements for width and length of fabric pieces after you enter a waist line number into the formula.

Here is the tiny doll skirt -- so cute!

Once I finished Angelina's skirt I had enough fabric to make a matching Doll Skirt -- Angie got a new blond haired 18" doll for Christmas!

So now that I've worked my way through this skirt -- I can cut into the beautiful Easter Pink Linen that I also picked up at Joann's.  (Did you visit when the Clearance Fabrics were an additional 50% off of the CLEARANCE price ?  woohoo !!).

With the linen, I will attempt to make Angelina and her mom (Dari) matching mother, daughter skirts for Easter - or Spring (or maybe to line the cat box ?).

I did french seams so there are no raw edges

Another French Seam

I hope she loves this skirt -- I had fun making it!

I'm excited to give this to her for Valentine's Day -- now to find Super Mario fabric (or sheets) to make Lucas (her brother) the bedroom curtains I promised.

Have a wonderful week all -- Linking up to Connie's Linky Party Tuesday and Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story!  Go checkout the awesome things that creative people make!  (see my sidebar for the links)...

Hugs,
Karen

Cute Twin Bed Runners - 2012 Finishes

I had the opportunity to whip up these cute little bed runners for our twin grandsons for Christmas.

Caleb and Benjamin are 4 years old - they have these sweet little toddler beds that are low to the floor.

These sized down bed runners were a perfect addition to their "twin" bedroom.

The runners were simple to make -- I used fusible machine applique -- with machine blanket stitch and Stitch in the Ditch around the letters and a little straight line quilting here and there...

I started with a design called out in the book "Bed Runners Using Pre-cut Fabrics".


In typical fashion, I made a few modifications.

1.  Scaled pattern down to fit a toddler bed
2.  Added a fabric lining on the inside of the pocket using fusible fleece between the layers
3.  Added their names in applique
4. Did NOT use pre-cuts...

The side pockets are sweet -- large enough to fit a book or a stuffed animal... a little night light or whatever...

You can see the pocket here -- at the end of the runner.

Because I had to scale things back in size, I did not put the divider in the pocket.  It makes it a little more flimsy but will fit a larger book!!

Here is a peak at the back of the runners.  On the back of Ben's runner I added some green fabric and opposite on Caleb's.

They are twins - so they share more than each others color schemes.


Caleb loves Firemen !!

Benjamin

Two little sweeties after a day of sledding at our home last weekemd....  Love these little men who look just like their daddy and their grampa...

Caleb

 Thanks for stopping by all.

Hugs,

Karen