I promised Pictures!

And here they are!

My new baby:


And what I've made on it:
Well, I finally quilted the fall mini quilt swap. This'll be mailed with 4 other swaps this coming week, either tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on when I can get out of the house for a bit after Christmas clean-up.



Close up of the quilting:

Finally quilted. I chose to use the new machine and do a leaf motif in the white parts of the quilt, and then do swirly lines on the diagonal through the yellowy/orange squares.

I am totally thrilled with how this one came out. I only hope my partner is as thrilled as I am.

I have just enough of the gold/yellow to make myself one.. this one hurts to part with.. it really does.

This one I did hand applique for the leaf and some new decorative stitching around it. It's for Raesha on Flikr, but I'm still waiting on her address to send it to her.


And the back:

This is the back of the mini for Raesha. I just loved the center fabric and it was gold and brown and just "fall-like" to me.

And I kept playing more with the new machine. I signed up for the January STUD quilt swap with the theme of Rainbows:


I actually made my mini's top.. can you guess what I did with these fabrics?? :D

More pictures of Christmas coming soon - gotta get the photos off of my mom's camera and then I'll pick some good ones to post here!

And I got a SEWING MACHINE!!

Whoo hoo. The hubby is good. :D I got a new Singer Confidence sewing machine AND a proper sewing table with a drop down spot for the machine. The machine is a little too big for the drop down part, so we're going to get a new table, but yea.. the hubby is good. AND he let me get some more fabric. Not too much, but just a little bit, enough to make a girl happy. :D He got me a fat eighth pack of polka dots which is just too cool.

I'm re-charging the camera from JellyBeans 2nd Christmas, so there will be pictures soon, and there will be pictures tomorrow of my new play toy.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. :D I'll be back tomorrow with a new installment!

Merry Christmas to All

Merry Christmas to everyone!

I hope that your holiday is fantastic!

Mons Christmas Candle Mat

Just me again.

Showing off the candle mat that I finally finished quilting for Mom. It's got the heat resistant batting so she can double it as a pot-holder too if she wants. The quilting's not perfect, but I'm just happy that I got it finished before Christmas!

Just yay! I'm so happy for them

Since I live in NJ, this is a HUGE story here. And I'm not far from the Tinton Falls area.

Just yay. See for yourself: HERE. Congratulations David Goldman.

I Miss You Daddy

My father died on May 5, 2007.. so this is our 3rd Christmas without him. This year, it's hitting me really hard, even though last year was JellyBean's 1st Christmas (even though she was only 10 days old).

I think it's hitting me because this year Terry and I moved into our own house, and JellyBean is a ton more aware of things and has become so much fun. I know my father would have loved her.

And it doesn't help that a few days ago I found the last pictures taken of Daddy. They were taken in late April of 2007, before I went away to England for a week. I was in England the week that Daddy went into the hospital and never came out. He was really sick and none of us knew how bad it was. At least I made it home to be with him the night he died.

Here Daddy was modeling (he looks so impressed - doesn't he??) a laptop bag that I made for my husband.



And here he is showing off the inside of the bag. Terry wanted something "fun and funky" so I put flames inside.


Anyway - this is my sad post - Merry Christmas Daddy.. we all love you and miss you.

Snow Day = Sewing Fun

After helping the hubby shovel over 20 inches of snow (we took turns taking care of the bean) I got some quality sewing time in.

For Aunt Pitty Pats swap:
I've made 6 of these:


And 6 of these:


So now all 24 of my 9 patch blocks are done.
Here they are in all their glory:


I've also cut out all the light bulbs for the "Christmas Lights" blocks, and I'm in the process of appliqueing all the penguins. Those that I did have done I ripped apart because I thought they looked like crap.

And I've got 2 more mini's in the works.

School is closed tomorrow!! YAY!! So that means I can get more sewing time in before the holidays.. and who knows, maybe even more presents (and I still have to wrap a ton of gifts!)

I haven't abandoned anyone!

I've been so busy creating for Christmas, and having JellyBeans 1st birthday - I've been busy!

Here is the birthday girl eating her Elmo cupcake:


She got a little tired near the end, and just shoved her face right onto the cupcake.

This was the original cake I tried to make. It was from a Build-A-Bear mold, but the frosting was too heavy and it collapsed on itself. We did eat it anyway - and it was good!


A Christmas Gift for my grandmother:

Made for my grandmother for Christmas (Sorry the picture is a bit blurry) it's an eyeglass case at the top part, and a pen holder at the bottom. There are spaces for 2 pens/pencils. Nana keeps misplacing her pens and she almost always needs her glasses to write, so I figured why not get both in one!

A cute little fabric postcard for a swap on Flikr:

Here is my fabric postcard for the ORB postcard swap! :) I'm not sharing who it's going to. Because of the snow it's in the mail on Monday (hopefully!!) It's actually in an envelope to protect it from the snow, and it's waiting in our mailbox to be picked up!

And my re-send to Karol-Ann for the stitchers angel swap:

The only thing you can really see clearly (I want her to have a surprise or two!!) is the rose fabric bowl.

And just so anyone knows - my mother in law mailed us a painting on 19 October 2009 from England. We just got it on 18 December!! So maybe the first parcel is still winging its way to Karol-Ann.


And...
My gorgeous STUD mini quilt from chocolate_is_the_best_medicine on Flikr:

Look at this hand embroidery:

Improv Quilt Block - for Jo

This is my 12.5" quilt block for Jo from the UK. This is for the My First Quilting Bee and Block Swaps group on Flikr. She sent gorgeous blue fabrics for me to work with, and I had a great time. She requested an Improv style quilt block, and I went for it. Never made one before, but I had such fun.

Here are the fabrics she sent me:


And this is what I made from it:


The bottom has this gorgeous snowflake like print that I couldn't bear to cut apart, so I framed it and had to show it off.

The block isn't horrible, I will get better at it if I practice more.

I send my fabrics in February for the My First Quilting Bee/Block swap group.. now onto thinking of which fabrics I'll be sending.
My ideas for my fabrics:
Anchors and Blues
Puppy Paws and a solid
Greens
Coffee Prints/Colors

And I still don't really know what I'm asking everyone in the group to make.. it's a tough decision!

1st Birthday Party #1 - Done

Phew, 1st of 2 Birthday parties is done!

We had Elmo cake, a 3D bear cake that kinda.. well, fell apart and my grandmother took us to see Santa today. JellyBean screamed - she was petrified of him!!

Pictures coming soon!

And I'm really disappointed - I mailed my Stitchers Angel parcel on either the 9th or 11th of November, and my partner hasn't gotten hers yet. But that's ok.. I'm making more goodies for her, and they'll be posted on Tuesday. I didn't get a chance to post them on Saturday, and tomorrow I'm preparing for my day off work on Tuesday for JellyBean's 1st Birthday!!! So on Tuesday, we'll stop in the post office and mail another package!

Thinking about opening an Etsy...

So today I finally seriously started thinking about opening my own Etsy. I don't know what I'd really like to sell there, but I was thinking about putting together miniature quilt top kits.. but I don't know if that'd be a good idea or not. I've got a ton of fabric and I think I'd like to put together kits. I love cutting fabric - that's so calming to me!

Any ideas from my readers?

And.. I'm more mini quilt down in my 1000 promise. Before I want to send them off, I'm going to finish 10, so that means only 4 more to make and then I'm sending my 10 into Ami Simms. :)

Yay for productivity!

And, Terry and I started wrapping the gifts for Christmas. We got our tree today and put it up, so when it's settled down a bit and all decorated (probably Wednesday night) I'll have a nice photo to share with you!

And more

Thanksgiving has been here and passed.. and I'm still no where near more ready for Christmas. Mom and I went out shopping on Black Friday, and did most of the shopping then (I was in Kohl's three times!!!) and got most of my gifts. Now they're all hidden all over the house (so Bean doesn't find them, or the hubby) and I have to get them wrapped. Now all I need is more time! :)

Here's more of what I've been working on (instead of wrapping!!)

For Dee, only a little sneak peak: Yours is in the mail on Monday. I finished part 2! :)


This was the mini quilt that I sent to Maya for the Four Seasons Holiday Quilt Swap. She did receive it (so now I can post it!), but was away for Thanksgiving so it took her a little bit to respond.



This is the beautiful Mini I received in the swap from the extremely talented Sara:



Would you believe she said this was her first time doing embroidery?? It's too perfect, and already hanging up on our walls.

This was one I was late on, it was for STUD October to Kathy: (She did receive it in November, I just got around to uploading it.



And...
I conquered Triangles!!
I'm still nervous about making them, but I'm no longer scared.

Show N Tell

Here are the other things that I've been working on lately.

This mini is going to a lovely lady in a personal swap:



It actually has been bound already, just need to label it.

Here's a close up of the hand quilting:


And this real mini quilt will be going in the package as well:


For Scale:


For Aunt Pitty Pat's Christmas Swap:
I'm in 2 groups, so I need to make 24 9-Patch blocks.
Here are 12 for Group 2.


This shows a truer color:


4 Seasons Holiday Quilt Swap:
This is it unbound, I just need to upload one of it that was bound.


Idea for the Inspired by the Fall swap:


I didn't sew anything for it yet - just playing with some placement.

Some of what I've been working on

Showing off some of the mini quilts I was alluding to yesterday.

For Dena: She should be getting this one any day now:
For the My Favorite Quilters 6" and under swap:



And the back:


For Jess:
The October (I was a little late finishing) STUD quilt:




And the back of it: (Hand Quilted)


For Kathy J:
October STUD Anything Goes - we both chose to do Halloween:
Hand Quilted:


For Ruthie:
6"-12" Swap Group - Theme - Hawaiian. This is a bit larger than the 12", its 16" and all hand quilted. In the center I quilted a dolphin, then there is a star, a swirl, seaweed and a shell. I chose bright colors because to me Hawaii was all about brightness and fun.

I'm so proud of this one I pieced another top and will eventually quilt the other one or me.



True brightness:


Stitching close-ups (some are in black and white so you can see the contrast):












And the Back of the quilt: