Getting Ready for Christmas

My grandson LOVES the American flag.  Every time he sees one flying at someone's house or at a business, he tells me:  Look, Maw-Maw!!  There's my flag!!!

On my Quilty To Do list, I've had 'make a quilt for B' near the top for a while....  and never did it.   Until now.

Maybe 3 years ago, I found a pattern for a quilt on Pinterest (I know, right??  Me? on Pinterest??)  So I threw it together.......  It was 24" x 44".  Long and skinny and I just didn't know what to do with it.  Table runner?  Wall hanging??  Just some sort of decoration???  I don't know...

Well,  it was laying on the table in my craft room, and B saw it and claimed it.   Sure you can have it buddy...  but I need to fix it..........  

And into the unfinished project box it went.......  Hopefully, he forgot about it.....  

This past summer, I saw in Pinterest (oooo  shocker!!) someone was putting together a collection of wonky stars to make quilts for veterans and soldiers (I think), and I decided those wonky stars would be PERFECT for the flag quilt......  and I made 14 of them.....  And added 7 to each side.

Well, I think that turned out pretty good, even if I do say so myself.  Mr. Inspiring (Paw-Paw Inspiring??) thinks that B is going to LOVE it.  I purchased some navy fabric with little stars sprinkled all over and hand quilted it, and then grabbed a few of the fabrics used in the quilt top for the binding.  I haven't taken a picture of it yet all quilted and washed and crinkly.... yet.  I'm not happy with my binding and may redo it.

I'm also making a quilted laptop bag for my daughter.  Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures of it next week.  I'm using Joel Dewberry's Aviary fabric line for that and it's looking pretty cute so far....

Have a great week!  What Christmas projects are you working on??

Hugs ~~ Suz

First Quilt of 2015

I made the following quilt for my boss's daughter who was scheduled to be induced to have her sweet baby girl today!  After talking to Sandy (grandma and boss's wife) I found out that the nursery was decorated in pastel pink, pastel lavendar, and pastel teal - - all in butterflies.

Do you know how hard it is to find pastel butterfly fabric right now??  I spent HOURS looking at all the online fabric sights I could think of......  no luck............

So I decided to search butterfly quilt blocks.  I figure that I could at least have the colors in the shape of a butterfly.  I came across the pattern, Painted Ladies from Fig Tree Quilts and I fell in love.  You can find the pattern here .

I went to my (sort of) local quilt shop to choose the fabrics for my quilt and I ended up getting some wonderful reproduction fabrics!!  FINALLY!!!  I get to use some of this colorful,soft lusciousness!! (and please forgive me.....  I don't remember what lines these fabrics are from!  I was too excited to pay attention.....)

I do believe that the darker purple is my favorite.  You probably can't see it real well in the picture, but the print is from the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle, Diddle.  It's so cute!

So here's the picture of the whole thing.  And the back - - I believe the back is from Riley Blake.... I love how this fabric feels and when I pulled it out of the dryer???  All that warm, quilty crinkliness was mine to enjoy!!  My favorite part of the quilting process!!

The quilt measures out at about 50" x 50", which is a really nice snuggly size!  The pattern called for 30 butterflies (5 rows of 6) and I cut it back to 16 butterflies (4 rows of 4).  I love this quilt!!

I just hope Baby Aspen and her family enjoy it!!!

Here's a picture of the quilt I made for her brother, Nolan a couple of years ago.  It wasn't as big because his grandma wanted it for his bassinet.

My next project is a t-shirt quilt for my son-in-law!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Hugs ~~ Suz

Soo 2014 Was A Pretty Busy Year

We had a lot going on last year.  It seems like 2014 just flew by........

The first major milestone was the wedding of our friends' daughter, Sarah.  She and Mike planned an outside wedding, but because of the weather......... it ended up being held indoors, at the reception venue.

 

 

It was a beautiful wedding and a really fun day.  That was in June.

 

In July, we took a 10+ day vacation to Silverton and Taylor Park, Colorado.  We went with about 20 other couples and rode 4-wheelers and side by sides in the mountains.  After we got use to the elevation, we had a great time!  There was still SNOW on the ground!!  Crazy!

 



 

 

After our vacation it was time to  start getting ready for our daughter's wedding.  OMG  My baby girl was getting married!!!  I had to buckle down and get some stuff DONE!!!

 

I had a huge list of things to do:  (aka MAKE)...  Pew bows, aisle runner, flowergirl dress, and a bunch of decorations for the reception.  (As mother of the bride and having had hired a photographer, I didn't take any pictures that day.  I wish I had......  but....... Hind sight, right?)

 

 

 

Me and my baby girl!!

 

 

And during all of this we finished working on our house and put it on the market.  We ended up accepting an offer right after we got back from vacation!!  But.... it was contingent on the sale of their house!!  The tentative closing date was a week before the wedding.  YIKES!!!   They ended up not selling their house quick enough to meet that closing date.  We finally closed on it a couple of weeks after the wedding.  That meant, as soon as we got home from the wedding, we had to start packing boxes like crazy people!!!   And, on top of that, our son also purchased a house and he moved into to it 3 days before the wedding.......   Talk about hectic?!?!?!!

 

 

And, then at the end of October, our friends' other daughter, Christina,  got married!!  It was a beautiful fall wedding at a winery!!  The weather was actually rather warm for October, but it was just lovely!!

 

 



 

And that lead us into the holidays and all the fun that entails!!  2014 was a great year!  And I'm really excited for 2015, because we are planning on starting to build our new house in a few months!!

 

Thanks for visiting!!

 

Hugs ~~ Suz

 

 



Update on my Last Quilt (i've been meaning to post this for a while.....)

So, when I made my grey and lemon quilt, I had this itching to make it, but had no idea who I was making it for.  It's kind of hard to explain to a non-creative minded person.  I just knew I had to make this quilt for no other reason than I had to make this quilt.

When I was close to having this quilt complete, I found out that a man in our town was having some health issues, and his aunt was planning a benefit auction.  Thanks to Facebook, I found out that she was looking for donations for the auction.   This is what I had been compelled to make the quilt for!!

You see, the first quilt I made, my breast cancer quilt, I donated to our local breast cancer dinner and auction.

 

 



It was won by a guy named Ryan who's mom, Linda, had fought breast cancer and won.  Mr. Inspiring knew Ryan and Linda and contacted Linda to let them know that if they ever decided they didn't want the pink quilt, since it was my first one, he'd like to buy it from them.  About a year later, Linda contacted Mr. Inspiring, right before Christmas, and GAVE it to him.  He wrapped it up and surprised me with it at Christmas.  It was the best present - EVER.....

 

 

Linda is the aunt that was planning the benefit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This quilt went together very quickly and I really enjoyed making it.  But the best part was the reason I made it.  It went to a great cause.

 

Sometimes, things do come full circle and good is returned to good.  

 

Thanks for visiting!!

 

Hugs ~~ Suz