Mother In Law's Quilt

When my mother in law Cherie came to visit in August, she brought along her quilt top.  She had taken a big leap in quilting and decided to do a Block of the Month that her local quilt shop hosted.  The blocks were all made and designed around Jamestown history.

She would call me and ask me questions about the directions on some of the blocks, most of them were made using plastic templates.  It was such a challenge, but she did it!  I am so proud of her.  The quilt is A.MA.ZING!

After she completed the top, she was too nervous to cut the three large border fabrics.  So, I cut them for her.  And then I sewed them on for her too.  The quilt is enormous. 

My friend Barbara quilted it on her long arm. There was no way this king sized quilt would fit on my dinky domestic machine.  Barbara did a beautiful job!

I finished the quilt off with black binding. I usually hand sew my bindings down, but didn’t have the energy or time to do it, so I used my sewing machine to finish it.  I felt like I was cheating!  Isn’t that funny?

Isn’t it so beautiful??  I told her she has to make one for me now out of blue and green fabrics.  She laughed at me!  Haha!

Merry Christmas

Thank you for another year of inspiration, friendship and encouragement!  Have a very Merry Christmas!

xoxo,
Heather & Family

P.S.  Picture taken in the Redwood Forest in California on Thanksgiving Weekend.

More Totes!

There were three cute girls having birthdays in December.  Barbara and I have been making scripture totes for them.  These are the Young Women I work with at church, ages 12-18.  They bags are a hit too, I am glad to see them being used.

First off is this lovely bag.   She loves big florals.  The outside of the bag is fabric by Sandi Henderson, I’ve had in my stash for quite awhile.  The lining is from the fabric line It’s A Hoot!

The second bag is for a girl who loves BRIGHT happy colors.  I think this fits the bill.  And I can’t remember who designed the fabric…

Okay, the third bag is for a 8 year old, Jessie helped me pick the fabric.  Of course she’d choose owls!  I think it’s so cute!

So, Happy Birthday girls!  If you would like to make one of these bags, I’ve made a TUTORIAL.  Enjoy!

PMQG Swap: Gifts Received from Ale!

At the PMQG meeting the bag of fabric I brought was stuffed full of Neptune fabric. There are a lot of Neptune lovers out there, when the fabric line came out in 2009 I had bought quite a bit of it because it was my favorite colors, and ocean themed! How could I not love it?

Ale did an amazing job, she said she flickr stalked me, & blog stalked me! She makes me laugh :) When I opened her package, I almost started crying. She did such a great job. And when Jen saw it, she said, “You nailed her Ale!”

She did nail me! First let’s drool all over this table runner shall we? It has linen, and hand quilting, and pinwheels! It’s so pretty, it hurts my eyes.

Then she didn’t stop there, she made me a pillow too! I know right? I am the luckiest girl ever. The pillow has all of the beautiful things the table runner does.

And on the back, look at the back…. She free motion quilted “Take me to the Sea”

Look at me, I just fainted.

Okay, so thank you Ale, I love what you made for me. Now it’s time to break out the rest of my Neptune fabric and make a quilt out of it, to match my gifts!

PMQG Swap: Wonky Stars Pillow

The Portland Modern Quilt Guild held its December meeting last night. It was really great! In October we all brought a sandwich baggy full of fabric. We then put the bags all together and we each drew one out. The idea is to take it home and make something out of it. You then bring it back to the December meeting and give it to the owner of the fabric. You are allowed to add one fabric to it. There were so many beautiful things made. Quilts, tablerunners, bags, pillows, wall hangings, it was fantastic!
I grabbed a bag full of Heather Ross scraps. I love Heather Ross fabrics, they are adorable! I knew that I wanted to make a pillow, and I’ve seen several “wonky star” pillows on Flickr that I loved, so I used them an inspiration for this project.
I was so excited about this project, I had it finished a week after I brought it home. I heard a lot of people at the meeting last night saying they had just finished theirs that day! Haha! I can’t do that, I get sooo stressed out.

The pillow is 20” x 20” and I quilted it with straight lines. I made this pillow for Lara. It’s funny because I had chosen Lara’s bag of fabric last year! I made her a Schnibbles quilt out of bright colored batiks. You can see it HERE.
I am now done with all of my Christmas gift making, you can find me relaxing and enjoying the next week now!

Mom's Present

I was sewing like a mad woman on Friday afternoon, trying to get my mother’s Christmas present completed. After I got done stipple quilting her present, I decided to clean out the bobbin case. I’ve done this a gazillion times… after I put it back together it wasn’t working right. First the needle wouldn’t pick up the bobbin thread, then the stitches were really tight, then the thread cutter couldn’t grab the thread. I took it to the sewing machine E.R. the next morning and they told me that the timing was off on it, so they’d have to keep it, and it’d take two weeks!

Luckily, I have a backup machine, the old school Kenmore is dusted off and back in use. I am so glad I kept that machine. I must admit, it’s like getting on a bicycle I haven’t ridden in 10 years and trying to figure it out all over again…

So, onto my mom’s lovely present. Carrie Nelson over at Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company designed a really sweet pillow, you can find it HERE. I wanted to make one so bad, but knew I wouldn’t have time to do it in “my” colors. So, I decided to make my mom one, and I’ll make one for myself another time.

Instead of making mine into a pillow, I made it into a small table topper. It’ll fit her end table by her easy chair perfectly!

The fabric I used is by Moda called Simple Abundance. I’ve made several other projects from this fabric, a table runner, pillows & a quilt. I bought a fat quarter bundle of it. Just so you know, if you ever buy a fat quarter bundle of a fabric line, you’ll get a lot of use from it!!

I backed it in a matching green from my stash, and stipple quilted it using a tan thread.

Merry Christmas to my mom!

He's a mean one, Mr. Grinch

My dad has always had a thing for The Grinch. He would read it to us, sing the song randomly, and be a goof about it. I even bought a tie for him at one point which he wore regularly :) When I saw The Grinch fabric at the quilt shop I had to get some to make him a gift! I ended up making a table runner for their coffee table, that way they can enjoy Mr. Grinch for the month.

I had fun free motion quilting this one around the blocks.

There are still quite a few panels left which need to be turned into a couple of pillows, that will have to wait for next year! I am so Grinchy like that. Do you guys love The Grinch?

Christmas Table Runner

While visiting my family over the summer, my sister gave me a pile of Christmas fabrics she'd been collecting for awhile. She was just about to have a baby, and knew she wouldn't have time to make something with the fabric. There were two charm packs of this Christmas Fabric. I decided to make a table runner out of one of them.

The block is a snowball block, and there are 30 of them. It was really simple to make, and I like the pattern it creates, a kind of honeycomb.

I made a Schnibbles quilt out of this fabric in 2009, called Winter White. You can see it HERE.

I did swirly free motion quilting on it. It was mailed off to her early so she could use it this month on her table. Love you Nikki!!

Pillows and Fabric!

My mother in law made the most beautiful quilt. When she came to visit over the summer she brought it with her, along with all of the scraps from making it. It is currently being quilted by my friend Barbara on her long arm. When I was thinking of what to get her for Christmas, it dawned on me to use her scraps to make some throw pillows for her bed, so they’ll match her quilt! I know, I am so smart huh? Pfffttt…

I stayed up late for a few nights making them...

I have always wanted to try to make a “braid” block, so here is my attempt doing that. I used the instructions from my book, Jelly Roll Quilts.

And I did a general trip around the world and quilted it using a cross hatch. Easy peasy.

These were really fun to put together. Both pillows cover a 16” x 16” pillow form. I need to take the time to learn how to add piping to my pillows, I am sure it can’t be that difficult. Maybe next time. There will be a next time :)

In other quilty goodness, I ordered some fabric from Heather Ross’s studio sale a few months ago. I received my order last night! I wanted some of her fabric from Far Far Away II. I love what I was sent, it’s on a linen type fabric that is really soft.

And the week of Thanksgiving our good friends Nate & Julie came to visit us from Utah. They stayed for about 3 days, and we had so much fun catching up with them. They were like a breath of fresh air. Julie is a quilter as well, and she brought me a huge stack of fat quarters as a gift! Holy cow! Julie you rock :) Now to find the perfect pattern…

I have a lot more to share, if I can find more time to blog, I will! I hope you are all doing great, enjoy the weekend!