Quilt and Art Show

My mom and I entered our creations at our church's talent show.

My mother's name is Elizabeth, and she has the artist gene :)

She is a sculptor and a painter.  

She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia when I was a young adult.

I was able to go to her graduation ceremony, it was very exciting!

In the center of the table, a little to the right, is her Anne of Green Gables.

Both of my parents are from Prince Edward Island, where the story of Anne takes place.

Mom  has sculpted over 500 Annes, and she uses the red clay from the South shores of PEI.

She doesn't use a mold, she sculpts them by hand, and uses some little tools.

The little girl wearing the Snow White dress is my 2 l/2 year old granddaughter, Lucy Jane.

She painted it for my daughter Lindsay, but I loved it so much that she painted one for me!

That's true love :)

The painting on the extreme right is my son Sean proposing to his girlfriend, Kari.

It's their wedding gift, but it's a surprise....shhhh!!!!

 My mom's talented in so many different ways.

When she was a teenager in the late 40's, she used to sing on the radio, like Patti Page.

She's also an excellent gourmet style cook.

I showed my quilts.

My Paper Doll quilt is one of my favorites, it's designed by Lori Holt.  

Lori only ever taught her appliqué quilts once, and I was fortunate enough to take three classes from her.  I could have taken some more, but had no idea what I could do with all the quilts!  

They are only worthy of being wall quilts, each and every block is sewn by hand, and there's lots of hand embroidery too.

To the left is my barn quilt, which is really scrappy and colorful :)

To the right is my Thanksgiving Dinner quilt, another Lori Holt appliqué quilt.

This one was easier because the pieces are much larger.

The other appliqué quilt I made is "The Comforts of Home", it's hanging on my wall at home for everyone to see.

I hope you've enjoyed my little art show!

Here's an addendum to last week's post about my Hazel Hedgehog baby quilt that I made for my granddaughter Taylor who was born on February 18.
You can see the post here.
Taylor received her quilt and burp pads and she loves it all!!!

Hazel Hedgehog

I love making baby quilts, they're the perfect size!

One of my favorite parts of making a quilt, is choosing the fabric :)

Alpha bittys making finding pieces a breeze!

A few hours of cutting and sewing, and Hazel the Hedgehog (designed by Elizabeth Hartman) has come to life.

Isn't she cute?

I machine quilted and bound her, and hung her outside for a photo.

Aren't the fresh green leaves and blossoms beautiful?

There was a really perfumed aroma too.

This is the back of the quilt, it's a soft minky.

I didn't put any batting in the quilt, it's really light.

I made 4 burp pads to match, about 9" X 14".

The pink and gray animal print is what I used for the binding.

I backed the burp pads with the same minky I used for the quilt back.

The print looks like little dandelions that you blow in the wind.

I like to roll up the burp pads and tie them with a ribbon.

Since the quilt was lightweight, I was able to tie it up also.

The quilt is on its way to a special baby girl :)

My next baby quilt will be "Fancy Forest" by Elizabeth Hartman, in blues.

A Toothfairy Envelope

I asked my 5 year old granddaughter Neo, to draw a picture of the tooth fairy.

This is what she texted me :)

I drew the image onto fabric with a Pentel pencil and embroidered it, and added a triangle on top.

This is the back of the envelope, I sewed a little pocket for her to put her tooth into.

The envelope is for Neo to put her note to the tooth fairy.

The tooth fairy can write her back and put her note in the envelope too!

Neo was really excited when she received her envelope in the mail!

Even the tooth that she drew in her photo was in the tooth fairy's bag :)

It's a mystery what the tooth fairy does with all those teeth!!!

Neo hasn't tested out the envelope yet, we are waiting for her to lose her third tooth :)

Instagram block QAL

Are you an on Instagram?

It's a social network where you only post photos.

I love Instagram, I have made many wonderful friendships on there.

 Quilters are very friendly and that's just how it is :)

Lori Holt @beelori1 had a QAL (quilt along) on her page, and I was able to sew along right as she posted the instructions.

Lori stated what colors we should use and for the background, we could use brown or gray.

We had no idea what the block was going to look like, and I was thrilled to see that it was an Instagram block!

I quilted mine with an organic quilt design.

I didn't measure, I just sewed lazy lines, and I love it!

I used a scrappy binding too.

Isn't this the cutest little tag?

I bought it from Pine Needles quilt shop in West Jordan, Utah, but you can buy it from tagitons.com.

I love the red fabric with the mason jars.

It's my favorite shade of red, too.

I put a colorful ticket fabric on the back, wrapped it all up, and sent it to one of my Instagram besties :)

Lori gave instructions for a 6" block and a 12" block.  

I hope you make this block, it was very enjoyable :)

Great Granny Quilt Finished!

This is a quilt I made with Lori Holt, on her Great Granny Sew Along, 2 years ago.

I had so much fun making it, but it sat on my railing for a long time, waiting to be quilted.

I finally took it to my wonderful long arm quilter/friend Cindy Paulson, and she did an awesome job as usual!

See the pops of black in the quilt and the binding?

Do you know Greg from grey dogwood studio?

Click here and you can find out the cute story...

My quilt is made up of mostly Pam Kitty fabrics, except for the balls of yarn.

I just love her style, so what do I do?
I collect her fabric of course!

The strawberries worked out so beautifully for the border!

See all the pretty roses in the quilting?

I backed the quilt with some pink cherry fabric from Lori Holt's Bake Sale line.

This is one of my favorite quilts and I get to keep it!

This sew along kept me great company, and I have a lot of fond memories of the experience :)

Sew Together Bag

Another sew together bag, yay!

I think this will be the last one for a while :)

I used Amy Butler fabric, I just love her prints.

I machine quilted the outside of the bag with wavy stitch #4 that's on my Bernina, with pink Aurifil thread.

I don't have a huge selection of Aurifil thread colors, so usually I make do.

It looks pretty good though :)

I love the print on the side of the bag, and the binding.

The zippers are shades of blue, but I want you to notice the Amy Butler prints.

One of my favorite labels.

I don't know what the name of the fabric is that I lined the zipper pockets with, but I love how I got the stripes to match on each one.

These sew together bags are really versatile.

Hope you enjoyed the photos :)

Quilty Fun Birthday Cake Banners

My daughter said she'd like a rainbow cake :)

This is what came to my mind, but maybe she meant layering the cake itself into rainbow colors...

This is the first time I've used a print for the background, I've always used Kona white.

It sure makes a different when I add the appliqué and the border!

I appliqued the names on with red Aurifil thread.

This is the first time I've tried "organic" machine quilting and I'm hooked!

You start at the middle top, and eyeball your way to the bottom.  

I move over 3 or 4 stitches and continue my way in the opposite direction.

The stitch lines are natural and uneven, just go with the flow.

Previously when I've machine quilted with vertical lines, they were all measured and straight.

I love the back too!

It's Rebecca's birthday today :)

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

My granddaughter Isabel turned one on February 11.

She is a gentle little girl, so I made her cake in soft colors.

The border doesn't stand out very well, I'm not sure what I was thinking about that!

The machine quilting is called "geometric".

I machine quilted from one corner to the middle and to the other corner to form a type of arrow head or triangle.

I did the same on the other side and the same on the top and the bottom.

From there, I shadow quilted.

The back is really cute with all the little cupcakes :)

I'm up todate on all my birthday banners for the year 2016.

Next year, I'll be making my two new grandchildren a quilty fun birthday banner for their first birthdays :)

If you missed it, I have a tutorial on Lori Holt's quilty fun birthday cakes, you can find it here.