All righty then...

And here it is, already Wednesday, and I haven't posted since Sunday. I know. Bad blogger!

But.. I do have things to show for my lack of posting.

First - Teresa received her fall mini quilt and she likes it! YAY!

Second - I made my mini for the 6-12" mini swap on Flikr, and mailed it out all in 2 days. This one wasn't my original quilt that I had in mind, but due to me being silly with the rotary cutter and cutting fabric without checking to see if a miniature block was under said fabric, we had block amputation. And then I had to make a new one because I had run out of one fabric and I want things uniform.

This is the sneak peek I posted:


But this is the whole quilt:


And Tina got it today! YAY! I only mailed it on Monday. It's times like these I'm proud of the USPS.

I got invited by Kimmie to join in a new Quilting Bee. This makes my 4th Bee. :) I'm so excited to have been invited - there are awesome quilters here.
Kimmie has the month of January - and her theme was Black, White and a little bit of Red. Then she posted some inspiration on her Flikr account and I had such a similar fabric to one of the photos for inspiration. And FYI the black fabric with the white swirls was the one that I had that was similar. So naturally I got to sewing and made her block.

I popped it into the mail yesterday.

And for another mini doll quilt swap for Carla. She doesn't like pink at all.. so I think this'll do her some good. No pink at all.


It's just the top right now, but tonight I'm planning on backing and quilting it. Then into the mail it goes on Saturday.

And.. hold on for this one..

I learned how to paper piece.
I went from this:


To:


This is the signature block I sent along with my Birdie Charm pack for the Charming Robin. The next time I see it, there will be 11 names on it, and the charm pack will be almost gone, if not completely gone. :)

Goodbye 2009... Hello 2010!

Wow, this seems totally surreal to write - Hello 2010!!

May all of your new year wishes and resolutions come true.

Once, a while ago, my father told me that his resolution every year was to become a better person than he was last year. So Daddy, this one's for you: it's my resolution too, I will be a better person than I was last year.

I miss you Daddy. I can't believe that in May it'll be 3 years since you've left us.

And my other (hopefully stuck to resolutions):
~ Complete 4 baby quilts for Co-Workers
~ Complete my Coffee Quilt
~ Quilt the Red and White monstrosity.. (we'll see on this one)
~ Participate in at least 6 mini swaps
~ Get to 25 states for my personal mini challenge! :)
~ Make 15 mini quilts for the AAQI and my $1000 challenge
~ open up my own little store to sell mini quilt kits and mini quilts
~ Lose 25 pounds or more.

And on Monday - 6 mini quilts are getting mailed out!! So if you've been on my list of mini swappers (personal swaps) be on the lookout!

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!

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!)

October must be giveaway month

Wowzers - are there a lot of Giveaways in October. I just mailed out my mini quilt to AnneLise from my giveaway. I think my next Giveaway will be at some point in the new year - or maybe when I hit 150 posts.

For the first giveaway - go to..
Opal Moon Enchantments

And look at this one:

Raggedy Anne Giveaway
It ends on Oct 12th - so just get in on it while you can!

Blue is Bleu She's giving away an AMAZING table runner - which would look perfect in my house. :)

Patch Andi Wowie! What an amazing messenger bag she's giving away. Go - follow her blog, she's awesome!

And don't forget:
RS Island Crafts

And ANOTHER great giveaway - (but I really wanna win the dollie!!)
Angie's Raggedy Patch

Quick & Easy Elmo and Cookie Monster Cross Stitch

This was a mini project that I did for little JellyBean. She loves ELMO! So I came up with the pattern from a tiny web graphic I saw and just stitched it out. Took about 3 hours in total.



I got a cheap dollar store frame and just popped it in the frame. Here it is hanging up above JellyBean's crib. Now she wakes up and stands up to look and point at Elmo. You can hear her squealing and it's just totally adorable.




And here's the Cookie Monster one. I also used a computer web graphic to help me come up with this pattern.

Yay!

Yay! Some people want to swap with me! :) I'm in talks with a few people, and so far it looks like I have:
1 - Canada - Newfoundland (confirmed Trade, due in Feb 2010)
1 - MO (confirmed Trade, no date set yet)
1 - Portugal (confirmed trade - December)
1 - Wales (confirmed Trade - Nov-Dec)
1 - Singapore (confirmed Trade - no date set yet/Dec 09?)
1 - North Carolina (confirmed Trade, due in Feb 2010)
1 - IN (confirmed Trade, due in Dec 2009)


I've got some ideas for everyone's mini so far and I can probably have one done a week as long as I get some sewing time in every night.

I finished the handquilting on my giveaway quilt, and that's going in the mail the end of this week, just need to bind it and then it's 100% done. :) Yay! She'll be getting that soon. It took me a little longer than expected but it's 99% done now!

Wanna Swap?

I posted this on my Flikr profile, and I thought maybe I'd get some more exposure if I post here too.

One of my goals is to swap a mini quilt (15x15 - 20x20 inch or under) with someone from every state in the USA and as many countries as possible - so if you're interested in swapping with me, please just leave a comment here or email me: cashew22206 AT yahoo DOT com. I'm in NJ, USA and obviously willing to ship internationally. And, if your state or country is already mentioned, just message me anyway - I'd love to swap with whoever wants to swap with me. And if you're a newbie to quilting, I still wanna swap!

Totals So Far:
States = 1/50 (California!)
Countries = 0

And here's a general thing of what I like and don't like.
As for colors I like, I like it all. I'm not overly fond of pepto-bismal pink and vomit green, but other than that I'll love it (Oh, I'm not really a fan of Amy Butler fabrics, but they are growing on me). I'm a big fan of trying my own things, and putting my own twists on traditional blocks. Every time I go to work with triangles, my points are off by a bit, no matter how many times I measure, or re-measure and press. I can't seem to get them right. I'm trying though. I'm not a fan of clowns at all. When I was little I was dropped by one, and ever since then I've been freaked out with them. I hyperventilate when I'm in the same room as one and have to leave.

Back from DC!

We're back from Washington, and wow, it was a really fun day. It rained a little, and we walked a ton, but it was so much fun. Terry and I went to DC for our honeymoon, and we stayed in the Willard Intercontinental. That is one amazing hotel to stay in. Bloody expensive, but beautiful. And while we were there, we ate at Cafe Du Parc. Terry and I got back and were telling my mom all about how good the food is there, and we were hoping that we didn't inflate the food in her mind. But we ate there again, had the mussels and WOW.. were they amazing. Mom is still raving about them. I'm just so glad that we made her happy.

Mom went to the Vietnam Memorial, and found her friend David Tesh's name. He's on panel 8W, line 33 of the Wall. She ran her hand over his name and filled up with tears. I find it incredibly sad that there are so many names there, and there are still so many men who haven't come home, and are forever missing.

On a lighter note, I'm almost done with the quilting on AnneLise's gift that she won through my giveaway, and then that's going in the mail. My Scrappy Christmas Blocks got delayed a day or two, JellyBean has been super needy the last few days and I didn't get the time to trim them up to size, but as soon as I do, my envelopes are going in the post. I've got the envelopes all written out.

I've started some work on my Stitchers Angel parcel too, it's not bad, it's getting there. I have however not been able to figure out the first project for the life of me. It wasn't clicking in my head, so I might do something different - even though I love the look of that bag. I might have to try it a different way.

And the 4Seasons Holiday Quilt Swap Quilt is in the process of being quilted. I had so much inspiration on it, it'll be done and then I'll just have to remember to mail it out in October! Chalk one up for me on being early. :D

I'll be back with some pictures later.

Look what I found!

Baby Hands! These are JellyBeans hand prints I put on fabric and I've made a mini wall hanging for my grandmother out of it. So ya, here's JellyBean's hand prints. These were traced when she was 6 months old - so 2 months ago. Wow, has time flown


I finally found a Block of the Month that's free and "Manly" because Terry has been really bugging me about making him a new quilt. *Sigh* Yet another project that I need to do. I keep promising, and then getting sidetracked by an 8 month old.
Southern Gentleman BOM

And I know that I've promised you all a block of the month too - I'm right now in the process of putting together the sample block. I'm thinking to make the block 12.5 inches unfinished, so it'll be 12 inches finished. It'll have some teddy bears on it. :D I'm excited.

And ya.. I think I might have found a new little obsession - Siggies I emailed the blog owner to find out what size they are, and what I should exactly put on them, but these look like so much fun. I think I'm going to have to try one (or a dozen). Looks neat. :)

And I've printed out all these patterns, and I hope to embroider them soon. I think they'll be a gorgeous lap quilt. Gail Pan Designs I just hope I can get the time to do them. I really love them.

And just a quick reminder - my Giveaway ends on Friday, August 14th. I'll be picking the winner at 4:00 PM, Eastern Time. I'll be using a random number generator to pick the winner.

Christmas is Coming... and I have nothing..

Typically, I start shopping and making things for Christmas as of January 1. I'm usually done shopping and crafting by mid to late July. I do this because of all the great "after Christmas" sales, and Mothers and Fathers day sales. I also figure that if I spend a little bit at a time it doesn't hurt as much at the end of the ear. And then I can buy something when I have the money for it rather than putting things on a credit card. This year, I haven't even started shopping or making things. I actually don't have anything made, and only 2 gifts purchased, one for my mom and one little giftie for JellyBean. To make things worse, JellyBean will be turning 1 on Dec 15th! I'm not so worried about that, but in my family Christmas is a huge deal. I mean, everyone spends a ton of time on decorating, and thinking about giving people gifts. I inherited the shopping and making early from my mom, who learned from my grandmother. They're both almost done with their shopping, but I'm not. I do think I have a pretty good reason though - I had JellyBean last year so I've been caring for a baby, and Terry and I moved into our new house. So ya.. but it's really no excuse.

My mom, grandma, aunt and I are similar in a lot of ways. We all love Snowmen (I LOVE them!!!), Penguins (Love) and Gingerbread men/women (feel the love!). None of us do the overly religious decorations. There's so much else that we love too, but those are the big ones for decorating for Christmas. I really want to make something for everyone in my family for Christmas, but I don't know how on Earth I'll be able to get 35+ gifts handmade. And to me, that's the whole purpose of Christmas - giving of yourself.


So here's my potential list of gifts to make:
Mom - candle mat (with snowmen?), she does needlepoint
Nana - maybe a new eyeglass case? (anyone know of a nice free pattern?) I mean, Nana is 86 years old - what do you make her? (I've already made her 2 quilts and 3 bags)
Aunt Janet - _______________________ (she loves cats, prim.. any ideas for free patterns), blue and white
Terry (the DH, he's English but moved to the USA to be with me - so I was thinking something with the Union Jack?)- he loves all things computers, video games, but I don't know what to do that I haven't already done :(
Sandi - one of my best friends - she's a stitcher, she loves cross-stitch, so I was thinking a pin-cushion or a needle keeper?
Autumn - she's my 8 year old niece, do you think a crayon keeper would be good?
Aunt Missy - I have NO idea! she loves cats, and going to yard sales.
Elizabeth - my cousin. She's a teachers aide (I'm a teacher, so I've already done all of the school stuff) and she's super eclectic, plus I already made her a quilt.
Amanda - cousin. she plays bagpipes - and I have no idea!
Ronnie - 10 year old nephew. I have no idea either.
Aunt Peggy - my godmother and a nun. She's Irish and she's already gotten all the Irish gifts I can think of from hats, quilts, totes to flip flops with shamrocks. So it can't be something that's Irish, I think she needs a change of pace. :) LOL

I think for the rest of the people on the list, I'll make a tote or purse since they haven't gotten one from me yet.

I've got the perfect idea for the Stitchers Angel Swap. In fact, I've already made one mini project for it, and I've got part of the pattern cut out for the Holiday Quilt Swap Mini Quilt. That one is my own pattern and I'm so super excited for it. Though, once I find out who my partner is for the HQS, I may change up my idea.

I'll come back later and update if I get more progress on any of my projects and any more ideas.

Started Hand Quilting The Baby's Quilt

Today I embark on a new challenge. So far, all but one of the quilts I've made have been machine quilted. The one quilt I did hand quilt was only an 8x8 and it wasn't really a proper "quilt". It was made when I was really young and I needed a doll house rug - so I can't count that. And besides, I didn't have a sewing machine back then.

Now, I've started the journey to hand quilting my daughters Peter Rabbit quilt. I started making the top before she was born and completed the top in November 2008, right around Thanksgiving. Because I was due in the beginning of December 08, I couldn't sit in the sewing chair for too long (I was *huge*!!) so the top went unfinished until now. I wanted this quilt to be something super special for my daughter - she's our first child. I poured hours of love into making the top, and I wanted to do something equally as nice for the quilting. But, as I got bigger and bigger, the less and less I could sit in the chair. Even finishing the top before she was born was a true labor of love (pardon that pun). Then after she was born, I was too enthralled with a new baby and I wanted to be with her all the time, so sewing and quilting definitely took a back seat. I packed up all my fabric and other sewing treasures and concentrated on being a good mom. In April, DH and I started looking for our own house. We found a house that we fell in love with and closed on it in the last week in June after I finished work for the school year. We planned it this way so that I have the summer off to unpack and relax before the school year starts again. So again, all my sewing stuff stayed packed up for the move. I've got a lot of the unpacking done now, there's still about twelve boxes left to unpack, but now I can devote some more time to sewing - and now I've got my own sewing space - not just on the dining room table anymore! When I get my sewing space up I'll post some photos.

So now, the hand quilting has begun. I think what I'm going to do is to quilt in the ditch around the blocks, and quilt her name into the border. I've got this awesome variegated thread that is purple, light blue yellow and light green that matches perfectly with the quilt top.

I hope that when JellyBean grows up she realizes how much love went into the quilt, and still loves it - faults and all.

Here's the quilt in the hoop:


Close up of one of the blocks:


15 minutes into the hand-quilting: (Apologies for the lightness. I hope you can see the stitches)

First Post in my New Blog

Well, this is my first post in this new blog. A few years ago, I had a blog, but in the course of my husband moving from the UK to the USA, having our immigration interview (and DH getting his Green Card!!) having a baby, finishing graduate school, computer crashes and moving house (all while working full time) I lost the URL and password. So here's the new blog. I'm calling it JellyBean Stitches because I love to stitch and JellyBean is the nickname of my 7 month old daughter. My husband and I called the baby JellyBean when I first found out that I was pregnant and we didn't know the baby's gender. JellyBean just stuck.

We just moved into our new house at the very end of June, and it is difficult unpacking with a curious 7 month old who is crawling into everything. My goal is to finish unpacking the one room where all the boxes are before I go back to work in September.

I'd like to say that I'm a craft addict. I love crafting - I'm not really good at it, but practice makes perfect right? I cross stitch, embroider (still learning some stitches), do general sewing, and quilting. Probably like most crafters, I learned from a family member - my Grandmother. My grandmother is now 86 and doesn't really do stitching anymore, she's the one who taught me how to cross stitch, embroider and
quilt. I love the look of crochet and knitting, but for the life of me I can't figure them out (and I've tried the lefthanded books and instructions)

So I guess now I'll do a little show and tell on a few of my quilts. I'm by no means an expert, nor am I as good as a lot of the quilters I've seen online, but it's something I love to do - and that's what matters right?


This one was made for my god-mother who is Irish. It was one of my first quilts, and I created the pattern on graph paper. It's tied with little shamrock buttons.


I just adore this quilt. I don't know why really - the background is really kind of ugly, and it's super bright, but I love it. I call it my Hawaii 5-0. :)


Not really sure what I was thinking when I made this one. The brown is still one of my favorite fabrics, and I have just enough left for another project, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it since I don't have many reproduction fabrics left.

And here is a close up of a crazy quilted fabric postcard I made for a swap a couple years ago. Sorry the quality isn't better, but it was the only photo I could find.