Needle Book

I made this little needlebook for a sweet friend of mine.

The pattern is by Amy Sinibaldi of Nana Company.

Amy designs for Art Gallery fabric and she made this tutorial in October 2011.

My friend is a modern quilter, so I tried to make this book as modern as I could, 

even though I added vintage buttons and rick rack.

Here's the inside, the theme is green :)

The little patchwork squares are 1" finished, all Denyse Schmidt fabrics except for the teal one.

I hand quilted the back and the spine of the book, 

giving it more of a "zakka" look.

You can see the other needle books I've made

here, here, here, here, and here.

The tutorial can be found on my Pinterest board here. 

Thanks for following me and I hope you are inspired to make a needlebook :)

Farm Girl Chicks

I moved from northern California, to Arizona last June.

I met Nedra in Gilbert, and we have been fast friends since!

We took a day trip to Payson Arizona, 

and went to the Copper Needle.  

It's a fabulous quilt shop where we met Gina, the owner.

Nedra invited me to a quilting group called "Farm Girl Chicks", 

at Quilters Oasis in Mesa.

The rule is, you can only be working on a Lori Holt project.

Oh boy, is it ever a fun group, and right up my alley!

I love Lori Holt :)

There's laughing and sharing, more laughing and laughing again!

Ooohs and awwws at everybody's beautiful creations.

Last week, Becky Parzy came to our group 

and showed us some of her beautiful quilts!

Here is Becky's version of Lori Holt's "Quilty Fun" quilt.

Becky said that she thinks it's much more interesting if you piece the back.

She always makes beautiful labels too :)

 Here is Becky's version of her Penny Pig quilt, 

from Lori Holt's "Farm Girl Vintage" book.

She used the Farmhouse Lane setting found on Page 128, and substituted Penny Pigs for the Farmhouses.

You can see Lori's quilt here.

Here's the back of Becky's Penny Pig quilt, really cute!

 Here's Becky's Farm Girl Vintage quilt, so beautiful!

Becky said that she chose the border fabric and used the color scheme from the fabric to choose color choices for the blocks.

Such gorgeous machine quilting!!!

Notice the little printed borders that Becky added?

Very original :)

Lori always says that she loves it when someone makes one of her quilts "their own".

Becky had a couple of extra blocks which she added to the back.

Here's Becky's version of Lori's "Spelling Bee" quilt.

 I took closeups so you could see the individual blocks.

 The back of her Spelling Bee quilt.

The label :)

 I'm not sure what this quilt is called, but it's lovely!

 Becky has also made some really beautiful Tilda dolls.

 Becky and her friend designed this sweet heart conversations quilt.

 ...and this pillow to match.

Nancy (in red) is the awesome and incredible and darling 

host of our Farm Girl Chicks group.

She is also the heart and fun of the group too!

Nancy grew up with Ellen (white and blue), they have been best friends since childhood.

Ellen is good friends with Becky, that's how we were able to have Becky come to our group and do the trunk show.

They are all the sweetest ladies!!!

To add to the enjoyment, we had a baked potato bar for lunch with every single topping you can imagine!

This group is the highlight of my month!

I hope you enjoyed all the trunk show :)

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

I have a cute little two year old grand daughter named Taylor.

 Many months ago, when I first saw Stacy Iest Hsu's Goldilocks and the Three Bears Novelty Cut Sew Doll Panel, I knew I had to make it for Taylor for Christmas.

She loves dolls and role playing and I hoped she'd like it :)

I'm not usually a fan of doll panels, but some of them are really cute!

Isn't Taylor precious?

But seriously, what little girl wouldn't want these?
I wanted one, lol!

Goldilocks has a removable skirt, and so does Mama Bear.

Papa Bear's bow tie is too much, along with his shorts and suspenders.

I added a little "I Love You" tag to baby bear but sewed it on backwards, oops!

I had them all nestled in a large lined drawstring bag by Jeni Baker.

I made the bag out of Lori Holt's fabric line "Flower Patch".

I had the brilliant (ha ha!) idea of including the book in the bag.

I researched all the goldilocks books and this one seemed the best.

Goldilocks is very naughty in the book, she doesn't listen to her mom.

There are a lot of lessons to learn from that.

I'm pretty sure Taylor likes her gift.

Thanks to her mom Kimalee for taking the photos for me :)

I was so intent on wrapping and delivering the gift that I totally forgot!

Scripture Bags

Two of our grand daughters were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the Thanksgiving weekend.

We have a tradition that when a grandchild is baptized, we give them a set of scriptures with their names engraved on them.

My husband's grandmother began this tradition and we're continuing it :)

Both Neo and Reagan love panda bears.

I just happened to have two prints with pandas!

 I've made this bag so many times, it's a great pattern!

There is a free tutorial here.

This was a great day!

Riley was also blessed, you can see all the photos in the previous post :)

This is Reagan Clara :)

This is Neo Kimberley :)

These cousins are just a month apart in age.

Thanks for reading all about these special girls!

Riley's Blessing Gown

This post has a lot of photos, because it's about my "oh so cute" grand daughter, Riley Jordan and her special day.

I began a tradition of making each grandchild an heirloom blessing gown that they can pass down to their children.

This is my fourteenth one :)

I use natural fabrics and laces, the lace on the arm band is called Swiss insertion, and the beautiful lace on the edge of the sleeve is called French lace edging.

I used Imperial Batiste for this gown, so that it wouldn't wrinkle.

I embroidered the yoke and added seed pearls.

The edge of the lace with the little holes, is called entredeux.

Entredeux is French for "between two".

Attaching entredeux is very difficult on the eyes, lol!

It's attached with a zig zag stitch, and each time the needle crosses over, it has to catch each little hole with the needle.

This machine method finishes off the seam allowances, but each piece of lace is attached using 3 different methods.

It's very labor intensive.

Each of the 14 gowns (3 have been for boys) 

I've made are unique.

This is the slip, which I've made for each gown.

Each of those pieces of lace have been attached to each other separately.

I embroidered a design at the front of the hem, 

also with seed pearls.

In the 1800's or earlier, when women hand made these gowns,

they would embroider the child's initials at the back of the hem.

The intent is that each child who wears the gown will have their initials embroidered to the existing initials.

Eventually, there will be initials embroidered all around the hem.

That's partly why I use natural fibers, 

so that it will last throughout the years.

The first name (Riley) is always in the middle, her middle initial J, is on the left, and her family name H is on the right.

That's the old fashioned way to do it!

I also use mother of pearl buttons on the back.

Here comes cuteness overload, but Riley was very serious.

I looked after her one evening and she missed her mom :)

This is Riley in her gown and bonnet, the day of her blessing.

This is Riley's pretty mom, Kimalee.

There was a lot going on that day, and I wasn't able to get a photo of Riley with both of her parents.

This is my favorite!

I also smock the bonnet and use silk satin ribbon.

I borrowed Riley from her aunt for a quick photo, but she was pretty done with pictures, lol!

I mean really done!!!!

Riley has a beautiful smile, and here it is!

If you've followed this far, thank you :)