A Year Later...

I participated in a Saturday Sampler at American Quilting that ended last June. It was a block of the month quilt, and although it was quite challenging, I really enjoyed making it. I stayed somewhat caught up, and last summer before we moved out of our house, I actually finished up all the blocks except for the embroidery on the snowmen's faces. That silly block has traveled around in my quilting bag with me ever since. I sewed with Alisa today and decided to work on it again. I got the black sashing sewn between all the blocks, then tonight I finished the embroidery on the snowmen while watching American Idol. After I finished that, I hurried and put the borders on and voila! The top is done. Now I just need to decide whether to hand quilt it or take it to someone for machine quilting...and then move on and finish the three other quilts that are in the same stage of completion---blocks pieced but not sewn together. It's easy for me to get to that point. Finishing is the hard part...

Roman Shades

I've made some Roman Shades for the kids' rooms. I was copying some I saw from Pottery Barn. The boys' turned out okay, but they are a pain to put back up after you put them down--they don't fold up right for some reason. Thus, the boys never put them down--what is the purpose of them then??? With Morgan's I tried to let the shade droop down in the middle to form a scallop--didn't work. It just looks sloppy. So I'm in the process of trying to figure out what to do with it. Some projects just don't turn out the way you've envisioned, do they???

I'm In Love!

After living without an island in my kitchen for seven months, I am so excited to finally have one again. I mean, look at the room I have for cutting fabric! I haven't been in a very creative mode lately, but I have been working on some roman shades for some of the kids' rooms, and I have just been LOVING being able to use my island for the measuring, cutting, and pinning. So nice to not feel limited by lack of space.

Help Wanted:

I finished a "Little Red Hen" quilt about a year ago (the pattern is in this book). I've been trying to decide on what color of pillows to put with it to finish the look. I've gone back and forth several times and can't seem to make a decision. Does anyone have any great ideas? My furniture is black, and I do have a ceramic wash bowl and pitcher (made for me by Barry's Grandma several years ago--love it!) that has a really pretty blue in it--would you go with blue? Black? Red? Something completely different? This decision will also help me with curtains. Help me please!!!!

Scrappy Pinwheel Revealed

This is a fun quilt that I have loved working on over the last couple of months. Morgan and I decided to do her room in red and white, and this is the quilt I made for her bed. I took it to my wonderful quilter, and she quilted it with red daisies. I scalloped the edges (first attempt at such a thing) and I think it turned out really great! Most importantly, Morgan loves it too!

Cathedral Window

This is another overly ambitious project. Barry's Aunt was working on one of these when she visited a couple of years ago, and I fell in love with it. I decided to make two twin size Cathedral Window quilts for the girls' beds. Wow! What a lot of work. I ended up with two small runners, one of which is now at the foot of Madison's bed. Even though it is much smaller than I first planned, I really love it. When I finish the other things for her bed, I will post a picture of the whole thing so you can fully appreciate it too!

Yellow Brick Road

Now that we've moved and I'm taking pictures of quilts in the girls' rooms, I remembered I'd never taken a picture of this Yellow Brick Road Quilt on Alex's bed. Actually I made two of them for the bunk beds. I hand-quilted the first one--stippled it. How crazy was that! Anyway, the second one was machine quilted. Much faster and easier.