Relay for Life

Relay for Life was held in Crestview, Florida on Saturday.  

Spanky, my mother in law's pet, is the mascot of Southside Animal Hospital.  The staff chose Spanky as their mascot, to show their love for his owner, my friend and mother in law Glenda.  She is battling lymphoma and has had to leave Spanky at the animal hospital for extended periods of time because of the treatment she is undergoing.  

Here is the team's picture in the newspaper, with Spanky.

 Spanky needed to look extra cute for his big day.

I made him a little outfit to wear in the dog parade at Relay for Life.

A little hat befitting a cute Shih Tzu.

And a collar.

Oh Spanky, you are so cute!!!

Spanky, show off the back of your outfit.

Spanky won first place for his costume and second place in the dog race, and was awarded 2 trophies.  Way to go Spanky :)

Winner Announced

The winner of one of the small treat totes is:

 Joseph & Anna Heintzelman said...

I would love to win! So super cute!

Congratulations Anna, email me your address and I will mail it to you :)

Schoolhouse quilt

This quilt has a fun story!  There were four of us that made this quilt together, Nanette, Sue, Cheryl and me.  
We bought all the beige fabric and all the navy blue fabric in one cut.  I took the beige home to tea dye it.  I tea dyed it, followed all the directions, and then washed it.  The tea dye washed out!  I followed the instructions again and laid the fabric on the pavement in my driveway to dry and the tea dye disappeared.  I tried coffee and the same thing happened, the coffee color disappeared.  AAAhhhh!!! 
I guess the fabric was treated to withstand stains :)  Anyway, after a lot of frustration, I gave up and we used plain beige for our schoolhouse quilt.

The school houses and the stars were paper pieced.  Nanette did all the mathematical calculations and Sue was the one who did most of the paper piecing, I never really learned how.  Again, we mass produced the four quilts, and chose our school house blocks at the end.  We assembled the quilts together also.  
I don't think I would be able to make this quilt on my own, it was pretty complicated.  There are a couple of duplicate schoolhouses but most of them are a little different.

After quilting two quilts by hand, I opted to have this one machine quilted.  Hand quilting really hurts my fingers, even using a thimble.
My fingers get so sore that I can barely use them!

I had to search high and low for the backing fabric.  I just love the dainty roses and the beige is tea dyed.......from the factory :)

Sampler Wall Quilt

Every quilt has a story and I'm going to tell you the story about this one.  I think I might have quilted a table runner, but this was my first quilt.  I wasn't very knowledgeable and didn't have any quilting fabric, only a few scraps from my table runner.  (My, how times have changed!!!)  
I went to the local quilt shop and picked up some fat quarters in my favorite colors ( at the time).  My friend Liz really wanted to do this quilt, so she and I and Nanette began the quilt together.  One would cut the fabric, one would sew and one would press.  We all just did what needed to be done, sewing enough blocks for three quilts.  
We had so much fun!  We would talk about our children, laugh, talk some more.  We had a potluck lunch every time we got together, taking turns at each house.  When all the blocks were sewn, we each picked out our favorites and laid them on the floor in the sequence we liked.  
At this point, we sewed our own blocks together to make the wall hanging.  The blues remind me of Nanette, the browns and red/browns remind me of Liz and the purple was my favorite color at the time.  Every time I look at this quilt (which hangs on my dining room wall), I am reminded of the good times we had and the friendship we share.

All three of us hand quilted our quilts.  I shadow quilted mine, l/4" away from the seam.  Since I was a novice quilter, I backed the wall hanging with muslin.  

I love the center block, log cabin style.  The heart flowers were my first attempt at applique.  I enjoyed everything about the process.

Yes, everytime I look at this quilt, I am reminded of Nanette and Liz :)

Grandmother's Quilt

This pattern is from American Patchwork and Quilting magazine, August 2004.  I fell in love with it.  I was going to make it with two other friends but we were working on other projects together.

It is called Peekaboo Redwork.

I call it my "Grandmother's Quilt", because when my grandchildren come over to our home, they can snuggle in it.

I think the embroidered pictures are so cute, they look just like coloring book illustrations.

Notice the cat at the bottom of the quilt?  That is where the name "Peekaboo" came from.  There is a bear, a dog and a little boy peeking out from different squares.

I bought the red prints on the Wasatch Front Quilt Shop Hop, in Utah.  It is way more fun to go shopping when you are looking for something specific.

The quilt is backed in soft chenille.

I didn't quilt this myself, I thought it would be too difficult with all of the embroidery.

Blessing Dress from Wedding Gown

My friend Kim has two really cute boys, ages 4 and 7.  She just had twins, a boy and a girl.  Kim wondered if I could make a blessing dress for Isla, her baby girl, out of her wedding gown. 

 Gasp!!!  Cut up your wedding dress? 

 Kim eplained that her wedding gown would just sit in the closet and it would probably be there forever.....This way it could be put to good use : ) and enjoyed ♥

 Here is Kim in her wedding dress, isn't she beautiful?

I knew I could do it.  There was machine embroidery around the neck, edging of the sleeve and around the hem.  The hem of the wedding gown was straight in the front, but there was a huge, enormous train.  The train started at the side seams and made a big circle.  The hem was curved.  

I wanted the embroidery from the wedding gown to be on the neck edge, back of the yoke, the  sleeve hem and skirt hem of the blessing dress, similar to the wedding gown.  It was difficult to get a big enough piece for the skirt because of the curve.  

A closeup of the embroidery.

I modelled the pleats on the blessing dress after the pleats on the wedding gown.  I had to add an extra seam in the front of the skirt because of the curvy hem on the wedding gown.

I cut the sleeve for the blessing dress out of the sleeve of the wedding gown.  I didn't gather the sleeve to make it puffy.  Instead, I sewed a big pleat in the cap of the sleeve, to match the pleat on the front of the dress.  

Here is cute little Isla in her blessing dress.
She is so pretty!

Notice the embroidery on the bottom of the skirt :)

What a fun project this was, I really enjoyed designing Isla's dress.

There is more than enough fabric left to sew Isla a baptism dress when she turns 8 years old.   Princess seams in the front would help get the embroidery along the hem of the dress in smaller pieces.  I think a band around the waist would be really pretty, to match the band on the wedding gown.  

Small Treat Totes and a Giveaway!!!

 Today, I'm sharing a tutorial with you and one viewer will be chosen to win one of my Small Treat Totes.  

Just two fat quarters will make four of these little treat totes.  I say little, because they measure 4" X 4".  
I decided to make 8 little treat totes, so I used four coordinating fat quarters.  (A fat quarter measures 18" X 22".  It is really a quarter of a yard, but doubled so it is called a fat quarter)

I made mine for Easter, but they aren't pastel.  I chose pink because I am giving them to some cute little girls for Easter.  Also, I didn't have any pastel shades on hand :)

You can fill these little totes with chocolate bunnies!

You can fill them with fluffy bunnies!

A fluffy bunny for each bag :)

Here is the link for the tutorial.  

These small treat totes are so fun and really easy to make.

You have four chances to win one of these bags.
Leave me a comment. 

 Sign up to become a follower.  Look to the right of this blog.
Leave me a comment telling me that you did!

 Go to my facebook page and LIKE the page.

  Leave  a comment  on my Dream Quilt Create facebook page!

The winner will be announced on Monday, April 9.  
Good luck!!!