Coral, Queen of the Sea

This is Coral, Queen of the Sea!

I made her from a panel of fabric.

She is designed by Stacy Iset Hsu for Moda fabrics.

The panel comes with the front and back for the doll Coral, and little Sea horse, pillow, quilt, skirt and mermaid fins.

She's as precious as can be, all you have to do is stitch, stuff and assemble.

My grand daughter really wanted me to make Coral for her, but she doesn't know that I did :)

Shhhhhh.........

Matching pillow Cases and Lined Travel Bags

I made 3 little pillowcases to fit 12" X 16" pillow forms.

I wrote a tutorial on them, and you can see it here.

 I love this fabric!  

I made these pillowcases for 3 of my little grand daughters.

We are taking a trip to Africa together, tomorrow.

Our plane flight from Atlanta to Johanesburg is 17 hours!

I hope these pillows will bring them sweet dreams on the airplane.

 I also made Neo, Kylie and Isabel, a lined travel bag that matches their pillows :)

It's just as much fun choosing fabric for the lining as it is for the outside of the bag :)

 I know that Neo (6 years) and Kylie (3 years) will be fine on the plane, but not quite sure how 18 month old Isabel will be!

I filled the bags with some books, pencils and treats, to help keep the girls interested throughout the trip.

I'll post some photos when I get home :)

Lined Drawstring bags full of treats!

I made 7 lined travel bags, from the tutorial at In Color Order.

I have made a countless number of these bags over the years.

I finally bought the pattern, there are 8 sizes of bags available, and Jeni even gives you the formula to make a bag with your own dimensions!

 I'm leaving for Africa today, I made all these bags for gifts.

My daughter in law Mabulane is from Lesotho, and I will finally get to meet her family!

These gifts are for her dad, 3 sisters and 3 brothers.

Each bag will hold a bag of pistachio nuts (they don't have them there) and Bath and Body hand soap.

I hope they like them!

Teeny Weeny Bunnies

I've wanted to sew some cute little animals to fit into Altoid tins for a long time.

First I had to buy the Altoid tins.

I shop at a great site in China, called aliexpress.

I searched for hinged altoid tins, and found some for 75 cents.

I decorated them with scrapbook paper, lace, ribbons and buttons.

Inside each one is a treasure!

A teeny weeny bunny named Betsy, all snuggled up in her blanket.

I glued scrapbook paper to the lid, using a tacky glue.

Betsy just woke up, and she's ready to play!

Inside this little house is Bailey.

Bailey just had a long nap and is ready to run around!

All that running around made Bailey tired again...

I found the patterns for Betsy and Bailey in this little "Cute Book".

It really is cute!

Lulu quilt, finished!

Do you ever see those giveaways on Instagram?

I have fun with them, usually you only have to become a follower and leave a comment.

Last summer, I won this pattern, designed by Amber Johnson.

Her company's name is Gigi's Thimble, 

her Instagram name is gigis_thimble.

Not only did I win the pattern, but I also won the machine quilting for the quilt I made with Amber's pattern!!!

It takes a jelly roll to make the Lulu pattern, that's all.

I only had a couple of jelly rolls, but I chose Sew Cherry, maybe my all time favorite fabric line.

It's Lori Holt's original fabric line.

I am still hoarding this fabric, so it was a little difficult to break into!

The quilt came together really fast, with a lot of chain stitching.

Here's my quilt, all machine quilted!

I just love it.

Stephanie Romney did the quilting, 

her instagram name is stuphfromsteph.

I highly recommend her, she did a fabulous job :)

I back the quilt with a soft minky.

I thought about giving it to my newest daughter in law for Christmas, but just couldn't part with it.

This quilt means a lot to me since it's Sew Cherry, Stephanie quilted it for me, and the back is minky.

It's my first minky quilt to keep for myself :)

I usually bind my quilts with a bright red, but didn't have any 

Sew Cherry.

I chose this gorgeous aqua with red cherries for my binding.

I could just stare at these beautiful fabrics all day!

Isn't it pretty with the beautiful aqua binding?

More Sew Cherry love!

I love the aqua against the pretty pinks.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at all the photos of my pretty lap quilt, it's so nice to be able to share with my quilty friends.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Happy Hallowe'en!

Doesn't this photo look like it's straight out of a Tim Burton movie?

They are 4 of my grandchildren, portraying Alice in Wonderland.

Bridger is 11, he is the Mad Hatter.

Kennedy is 9, she is the Queen of Hearts.

Charlotte is 6, she is the white rabbit.

Lucy is 3, she is Alice.

My daughter Lindsay is so creative, she always creates fantastic costumes and themes for her kids on Hallowe'en.

This is the first time I haven't trick or treated with my grandchildren.

I'm trying not to think about it....

Here are some looks back at other Hallowe'ens, we always have a lot of fun!

Hallowe'en 2012

Hallowe'en 2013

Hallowe'en 2014

I guess I didn't have any good Hallowe'en photos to show you from last year....

Have a fun and safe Hallowe'en!

Day of the Dead Party

My daughter Lindsay and her friend Brook, throw an incredible party every year before Hallowe'en.

This year's theme was Day of the Dead.

They send out invitations to their cooking group and then to some of their friends and family.

Lindsay's friend Kim did my makeup and let me use her beautiful skirt!!!

I don't even recognize myself :)

This is her home, and she created all the decorations herself.

Kim is a very talented artist!

These are some of Lindsay's friends who helped her with the set up.

Lindsay created all these huge paper flowers to decorate the wall, for a backdrop for photos!

Kari and Sean, the newlyweds, helped serve and wash dishes.

Lindsay made this huge piñata, it was about 40" tall.

One of the many appetizers were chicken tacos.

Isn't the presentation beautiful?

Lindsay and Kim :)

Kim is the artist who did my makeup!

Here is a shot of my dinner plate.

Then menu is on the right, if you can read it :)

The dessert plate was incredible!

Lindsay made the sugar cage which tops the flan.

It was an unbelievably fun night, with so many gastronomical foods!

Can't wait to find out what the theme is next year!!!

This is a look at Lindsay and Brook's party 2 years ago.

This is their party last year.