And she's 13!!!

My baby turned 13 this month!   She has been begging me to change her age on my blog (she's a bit proud of turning another year and needless to say I've been slacking on updating her age). 

So anyway.....this is simply a Happy Birthday to my one and only....

 

Oh so cool

I had to tackle her to get a picture with her - that's what happens when they become teenagers I guess :(

 

T-Shirt Quilt Adventure

So I started another project. 
Shocker huh?

My sister did a t-shirt quilt for her husband as a Christmas gift this past year and I thought it was a great idea.  What a wonderful way to keep memories and turn it into something you can use and keep for years to come. 

I didn't really think I'd be doing a t-shirt quilt anytime soon, but I thought it would be perfect in this particular situation.  It's a gift so I don't want to post too much about it, but of course it's never as easy as you think!  Why is that?  Mistakes are made, takes longer than you think, blah, blah.

Messy, Messy

 

I found this wonderful tutorial from Bunkhouse Quilts here.  It's a huge help and I have referenced it MANY times, and I'm not finished yet!

Anyway.........More to come. 

Dr Seuss Finished!!!

Another Finish....Yay! 

Even though this wasn't a biggin', It's still a finish and deserves a pat on the back.  Right?  Right.

 

This little puppy gave me some fits believe it or not.  I thought I would quilt the chevron print and didn't bother to mark anything before basting.  BAD, BAD IDEA! 

Lesson learned......Always have a concrete plan when it comes to quilting the top.  I ended up taking a bunch of stuff out that I didn't like, went back and forth numerous times between my walking foot and my other thingy for free motion quilting :) 

I ended up marking the top AFTER all my pins were in.  Not cool.  I don't want to do that again.  Like I said, lesson learned. 

When all was said and done I marked a chevron pattern on the panel and just did straight lines in the border. 

I made this quilt to donate as an auction item for my mother in laws cancer benefit next month.  Hoping there are some Dr. Seuss and/or quilt lovers in attendance!

 

And this time I remembered to get LOTS of pictures beforehand. 

 

 

Baby Quilts, Baby Quilts

 

 So it seems I'm surrounded by baby quilts lately!  This one was a gift for my cousin who's having a baby girl probably sometime this week.  It was a collaborative effort between my sister, mom and myself.  My dad drew the pattern, which was a combination of a baby quilt we saw on etsy here and also a very cute lamp my cousin had registered for. 

 

It was a lot of work with all the applique piecing, but worth it because it turned out pretty stinking cute! I wish I had some more pictures that showed the quilting and fabrics a bit better, but I waited until the last minute and a lot of them didn't turn out.  So, lesson learned - take the time to get good pics!!! 

My favorite part is the flappy ear on the elephant......

and the ric rac on the giraffe......

And that it's FINISHED!!!!

Cat in the Hat

This is a work in progress but I like it so far!
 

 

I'm pretty sure I'm not going to add anything to the quilt top, but if I do it would be to even out the sides.  I'm not so sure I love the wonky size.......

Because of my minky obsession I bought red minky for the back (what else would I do, right?!)

This shows the weird sizing - I don't know if it'll matter - it's for a baby/toddler.  Would they really care?  Probably not. 

 I have some more Dr. Seuss fabric so I might do some piecing on the back as well.  Something to think about.....

Still Here.....

Ok I never meant to take THAT long of a break from blogging!!!   Hopefully people are still out there!

I do have a few projects to post.  Here's a few pictures of my first completion....

and excuse my pictures - they aren't the best.  I'll have to take some better ones later (when it's not such a rainy/snowy day)



This one I'm pretty proud of. I used my walking foot (for the first time) for all of the straight line stitching and because of the minky back I pinned the heck out of it!!

I kept going back and forth on the quilting - did it need more?  I don't know - I might go back to it and add something.  Probably not because I'm lazy, but you never know. :) 

Do I Look Familiar?

Then I got really ambitious and decided to try some hand stitching for the first time as well.  I borrowed my mom's basket of perle cotton threads and looked up some tutorials and went to town.  I would definitely do it again, but my fingers were quite sore!

And of course I had helpers......

It was a quilt I started thinking it would be a quick little project. Not so much.

But I love it.

Did I mention I love it?  I LOVE it!!!